resting_place death_place death_date birth_place other_names nationality birth_date known_for article_title name occupation
arvada , colorado delray beach , florida 8 january 1972 sunderland , massachusetts money american 22 january 1901 founder of american youth hostels , youth argosy monroe and isabel smith
 monroe w. smith youth leader , outdoorsman , pilot , businessman
monroe and isabel smith

monroe william smith , a former boy scout executive and wife isabel bacheler smith , art teacher , founded american youth hostels as a young couple , in 1934 , in northfield , massachusetts .
monroe smith , also founded youth argosy , an organization intended to `` provide travel opportunities for worthy young people of slender means '' and resigned his directorship of american youth hostels in 1949 to devote time to youth argosy .
after a promising start , youth argosy went bankrupt in 1951 , largely due to a new civil aeronautics board regulation aimed at small charter groups .
monroe went to the mount hermon school for boys in 1919 .
after graduation he became a massachusetts school teacher and boy scout leader .
during a scout trip to europe , monroe and isabel met richard schirrmann and learned about his german hostelling organization .
they later attended the second international hosteling meeting in 1933 and brought the idea of hosteling back to the united states where the american hostelling international -lrb- ayh -rrb- movement was born .
monroe was born on january 22 , 1901 in sunderland ma and died december 8 , 1972 in delray beach fl .
isabel was born december 12 , 1898 in hartford ct and died may 3 , 1985 in boulder , co. .
monroe and isabel had three children , elizabeth -lrb- betty -rrb- , steve , and jonathan smith .
at age 16 , steve was featured in the february 23 , 1948 edition of life magazine for building a planetarium at their home in northfield ma .
