
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990                   TAG: 9004060016
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AVIATION PIONEER, AIRLINE EXECUTIVE CYRUS SMITH DIES

Cyrus Rowlett Smith, an aviation pioneer who was the first chief executive of American Airlines and built it over three decades into one of the world's leading airlines, died Wednesday.

Smith died at a retirement community in Annapolis, Md., after a long illness. He was 90 and lived for many years in Washington.

Smith, a folksy native Texan who was known as C.R. and was called Mr. C.R. in the halls of American Airlines, served the company from its beginning in 1934 until 1968, when he resigned to become secretary of commerce in the last year of President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration.

Smith's management style was distinctive.

He would peck out notes, suggestions and criticisms on a typewriter to subordinates.

He wrote his own speeches and even some advertisements for American, including a famous one in 1937 that dealt with the sensitive issue of airline safety.

It was headed "Afraid to Fly?"

In the quest for better service, he spent as much time as he could chatting with everyone from ticket takers to pilots.

In 1973, at the age of 74, after serving several years as a partner in the investment banking firm Lazard Freres & Co., he was called back as chairman of American Airlines to restore economic vitality to the company.

by CNB