WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. — Jay R. Smith, honorary chairman of Jay R. Smith Mfg. Co., died March 28 at his home here. He was 92 years old.

Born June 15, 1910, in New York City, Smith was a semi-professional baseball player before joining his father’s brass and bronze fittings business in 1930. From 1942 (when his father, Jay L. Smith, died) through 1978 (when the company moved from Piscataway, N.J., to Montgomery, Ala.), Jay R. Smith was president of Jay R. Smith Mfg. Co., a specification, engineered plumbing and drainage company. He took the company through the World War II years, then seized on the entrepreneurial opportunities of the postwar era and grew the business. His son, Jay L. Smith, succeeded him as president of the company.

Smith is survived by his wife of 66 years, Geraldine L. Petzold Smith; his children Jay, Geraldine, Bruce and Dwight Smith; his grandchildren and great-granddaughter.