He was a graduate of Central High School, Wilberforce University and Paine Theological Seminary in Ohio.

After his formal education was completed, he continued to exert a strong intellectual curiosity. He was well-read in the news of the day and in philosophical and theological subjects. He enjoyed reading the New York Times Book Review every week.

In 1937, he was ordained and became assistant pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church. A short time later, he was appointed pastor of Mother Bethel’s Youth Church.

Besides Allen AME Church, he pastored Union AME in Easton; St. John AME in Wayne; Bethel AME in Lamott, Pa.; Olive AME in Philadelphia; Monumental AME in Steelton, Pa.; St. Paul AME in Elmwood, Pa.; Bethel AME in Bryn Mawr; Ward AME in Philadelphia, and Zion AME in Philadelphia. .

He was twice voted Minister of the Year by the Laymen of the First Episcopal District. For more than 60 years, he served in the Philadelphia Conference of the First District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

He was a two-term president of the Main Line branch of the NAACP and was an active member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. As a youth, he was one of the first five African-Americans to become Eagle Scouts.

Even after his retirement in 1998, Smallwood often made himself available to comfort the bereaved and to celebrate marriages of the many who continued to seek his compassionate understanding.

He is survived by two daughters, Carole Smallwood-Statham and the Rev. Dr. Gloria J. Smallwood; four grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.