The Barbara Smith Fund is part of the legacy of a remarkable woman, Barbara Smith Coleman.  Barbara came to Commonweal interested in starting a program like the Commonweal Cancer Help Program for cancer patients on the East Coast.  She succeeded in starting Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C., before her death.  Her husband Web Coleman wrote a brief synopsis of how Barbara became interested in healing work with cancer, and then edited some of her journal entries about how this led her to Commonweal, to creating Smith Farm, and to leaving the further legacy of the Barbara Smith Fund.  Here is Web Coleman’s introduction:

Barbara Jean Smith, mother of three, Washington hostess, artist and sculptor, took her beloved brother Neill to Europe in the late 1980's, seeking help for his debilitating cancer. Their last stop was the Bristol Cancer Center in England, an unusual weeklong program of the British national health system. She was persuaded to join the patients as one of the caregivers. Here is a synopsis of her own account on what happened...  Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts