Dr. Thales Smith was born in 1923 in Monroe, Utah. He played the violin and viola, later becoming a founding member of the Utah Valley Symphony. After graduating high school, he attended the University of Utah. He decided to study medicine after his younger brother Clair died from a treatable illness. He joined the U.S. Navy at the beginning of World War II, but was deferred when he was accepted to medical school. He chose pedicatrics because he particularly enjoyed working with children during his training and residency. While working at a hospital in Ogden, Utah, he met a nurse named Charone Hellberg and they married in 1947. Between 1952 and 1954, he was on active duty at a naval hospital, and then he chose to move to Utah and open his own practice. He served on the board of the Utah Valley Hospital for many years and in 1975, was asked by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be a member of the first Intermountain Health Care Board of Directors, where he was heavily involved in the development of the Primary Children's Hospital. He and his wife served a medical mission in Albania. After retirement, he continued to provide medical care to migrant families. After the death of Charone in 2007, he married Ann Bushnell in 2011. He passed away in 2018.