Career
He was also a musical arranger, conductor, and writer for Welk performers and in other venues as well in the musical scene in Los Angeles, California. Smale replaced pianist Frank Scott, who in 1969 joined the faculty of University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota. At the time, the Welk series was still broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, prior to switching to syndication in 1971 for an additional eleven-year run.
He died at the age of seventy-nine at his residence in the Woodland Hills section of Los Los Angeles