Dr. Robert John Smith was an American anthropologist who for many years taught at Cornell University. He initially joined Cornell's Department of Anthropology and Sociology as an Assistant Professor in 1955. He was named Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology in 1974. He became President of the Association for Asian Studies in 1988, and in 1993 the Japanese government bestowed on him the Order of the Rising Sun. Professor Smith retired in 1997.