| |
| |
|
|
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
|
|
|
WHEREAS, The legendary aviation industry pioneer C. R. Smith |
|
|
was inducted into the Texas Transportation Hall of Honor on October |
|
|
10, 2006, in a ceremony held at the American Airlines C. R. Smith |
|
|
Museum in Fort Worth; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Born the eldest of seven children on September 9, |
|
|
1899, in Minerva, Cyrus Rowlett Smith started working at the age of |
|
|
nine as an office boy, and as a young man he worked bookkeeping and |
|
|
picking cotton and as a store clerk and bank teller; despite his |
|
|
lack of a high school diploma, he studied business administration, |
|
|
economics, and law at The University of Texas at Austin; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, After college he worked for an accountancy firm and |
|
|
then for A. P. Barrett's Texas-Louisiana Power Company; when Mr. |
|
|
Barrett bought Texas Air Transport in 1928, he asked the talented |
|
|
young Mr. Smith to be treasurer and secretary; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, By 1934, the air transport company had grown into a |
|
|
commercial passenger airline, and on October 25 of that year, at the |
|
|
age of 35, C. R. Smith became the first president of American |
|
|
Airlines; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Known simply as "Mr. C. R." to the company's |
|
|
employees, Mr. Smith organized the airline's routes into a |
|
|
consolidated network and standardized its fleet, making it the |
|
|
first airline to fly the new Douglas DC-3 in commercial passenger |
|
|
service; under his leadership, American carried its one millionth |
|
|
passenger by 1937, and by 1940 it was the leading domestic air |
|
|
carrier; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, During World War II Mr. Smith answered this nation's |
|
|
call to arms, stepping away from the airline to organize the Air |
|
|
Transport Command as a colonel in the Army Air Corps; by the end of |
|
|
the war he was Major General Smith and deputy commander of the Air |
|
|
Transport Command; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Returning to lead American Airlines in 1945, he |
|
|
oversaw the growth of the company into the jet and computer age; in |
|
|
1959 American became the first airline to offer jet service |
|
|
coast-to-coast, with the Boeing 707, and in the early 60s, the |
|
|
company partnered with IBM to implement the SABRE electronic data |
|
|
processing system; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Mr. Smith was appointed Secretary of Commerce in |
|
|
1968 by President Lyndon Johnson, and he served in that post for the |
|
|
last year of Johnson's presidency; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Called out of retirement in 1973, Mr. Smith served |
|
|
once again as American Airline's interim chairman until Albert V. |
|
|
Casey became chairman and CEO; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Active for the rest of his life in civic affairs, Mr. |
|
|
Smith passed away on April 4, 1990, and was accorded the honor of |
|
|
burial in Arlington National Cemetery; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The Texas Transportation Hall of Honor was |
|
|
established in January 2000 by the Texas Transportation Institute |
|
|
at Texas A&M University to recognize exceptional individuals in the |
|
|
history of Texas transportation; opened in 1993 at the American |
|
|
Airlines headquarters complex in Fort Worth, the American Airlines |
|
|
C. R. Smith Museum is one of the few museums in the world dedicated |
|
|
entirely to commercial aviation, and it is fitting that this |
|
|
visionary Texas aviator, businessman, and civic leader should be |
|
|
accorded this well-deserved honor; now, therefore, be it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the 80th Legislature of the State of Texas |
|
|
hereby commemorate the induction of the late C. R. Smith into the |
|
|
Texas Transportation Hall of Honor; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be |
|
|
prepared for Mr. Smith's family and that when the Texas Legislature |
|
|
adjourns this day, it do so in memory of C. R. Smith. |