Cyrus Rowlett Smith

Cyrus Rowlett Smith

Cyrus Rowlett Smith (born September 9, 1899 in Minerva , Texas , † April 4, 1990 in Washington, DC ), also known as CR Smith , was CEO of American Airlines from 1934 to 1968 and later again from 1973 to 1974. Chief of the US Department of Commerce between March 6, 1968 and January 19, 1969 under President Lyndon B. Johnson .

Life

Born in Milam County , Cyrus Rowlett Smith ran a number of businesses in his teens before joining American Airlines , including a western clothing store and a company selling young mothers' information to baby supplies manufacturers . After a recommendation from a relative, he ended up with the airline.

Smith was said to have known all the names of his American Airlines employees until the end of his first term. He left the airline during World War II and was promoted to major general for the United States Air Transport Command . After the war he left the army and came back to American Airlines.

On a transcontinental flight in 1953, Smith sat next to an IBM employee and initiated Saber , the first computer reservation system for the electronic processing of flight bookings, which went into operation in March 1964.

He was a close friend of many prominent personalities from Texas, among others, President Lyndon B. Johnson and longtime Speaker of the House , Sam Rayburn . The friendships paved his entry into the cabinet in 1968 as Minister of Commerce. Quarrels arose over his aversion to bureaucracy. He held the position until the end of Johnson's tenure in January 1969.

He returned to American Airlines in 1973 amid a period of mismanagement and scandals, though less than a year later he retired with the statement "working in the 747 era with a DC-6 on his mind". The American Airlines CR Smith Museum in Fort Worth is named after his name.

After his death in 1990, CR Smith was buried in Arlington National Cemetery .

literature

• Cyrus R. Smith , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 24/1969 of June 2, 1969, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

• Cyrus Rowlett Smith in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)
• CR Smith Museum