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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 5, 1991                   TAG: 9102050419
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EX-CHAMBER EXECUTIVE DIES

Jack Carroll Smith, executive vice president of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce for 28 years and a leader in state and local travel and industrial development, died Monday in a Roanoke hospital. Smith, 67, had suffered from cancer for several months.

Smith, a soft-spoken native of Mississippi and graduate of the University of Georgia, came to Roanoke in 1960 after 12 years as a personnel supervisor for Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co.

A joint resolution has been prepared by Roanoke and Botetourt county supervisors to name the industrial park on the boundary between the two counties near Bonsack for Smith. The park was a result of Smith's work through the Roanoke Valley Development Corp. and the Greater Roanoke Valley Development Foundation, arms of the chamber. Smith was instrumental in the purchase and development of the park.

Smith "performed an extremely valuable service to the business community. He handled economic development, and he did a lot of things behind the scenes that he never got credit for," said Robert Glenn, who was chamber president when Smith retired in March 1988.

Smith was organizer and longtime chairman of the Roanoke Industrial Development Authority, the most active body of its type in the state, Glenn said. When conventional financing was not available, the authority handled industrial revenue bonds, creating many small-business jobs, he said. "A lot of people have said their companies are here because of Jack Smith," Glenn said.

Jack Goodykoontz, a former chamber staff member, said Smith brought status and participation in state operations and "he brought together local leadership to make the community move."

Smith was chairman of the Virginia 2000 Tourism Committee, a member and former chairman of the Governor's Tourism and Travel Service Advisory Board, past president of Virginia Travel Council, former executive director of Miss Virginia Pageant Inc. and a member of the Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission. He was Virginia/North Carolina chairman for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and he received honorable mention in the 1990 Virginia Take Pride in America program.

He also was president of Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a past president of Virginia Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, past president of the National Association of Miss America State Pageants, former chairman of the city of Roanoke Airport Advisory Commission and former vice chairman of the Virginia Employment Commission Advisory Council.

Smith served on a number of Roanoke Valley boards and committees, as well as committees of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. In retirement, he was a consultant for the Virginia Division of Tourism, the chamber and the Jack Smith Agency, his son's advertising business.

Surviving are his wife, Melissa Moultrie Smith; son, Jack C. Smith Jr., both of Roanoke; daughters, Carroll Cottrell and Claire Cottrell, both of Richmond; mother, Dora Connor Smith, Atlanta; and three grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at St. John's Episcopal Church, Roanoke. Oakey's Roanoke Chapel is handling arrangements.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Boys Home at Covington.

by CNB