C. R. Smith

Political career

Smith was exceptionally well-connected politically, beginning with a Fort Worth and Texas base. He was close friends with many prominent Texan politicians, including Lyndon B. Johnson, Jesse Jones and Sam Rayburn. Smith was also on very close terms with the Roosevelt family, especially Eleanor Roosevelt and her son Elliott Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt would habitually call on Smith for travel arrangements. Smith introduced Elliott to his second wife, served as best man, and persuaded him to move to Fort Worth.

Smith's friendship with Lyndon Johnson was the principal reason for his accession to the Cabinet, and he became the U.S. Secretary of Commerce following the resignation of Alexander B. Trowbridge. Smith served until the age of 69, from March 6, 1968 until January 19, 1969. However, he often clashed with the civil service because of his aversion to bureaucracy: on his first day, he objected to having four secretaries and asked that three of them be fired. They had one son, Douglas Smith.

Art collection C. R. Smith's grandfather clock at the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum While living in New York City, Smith felt homesick for his native Texas and started collecting fine Western art. Smith donated 100 Western art paintings to his alma mater, University of Texas, which are on display at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas. This collection includes art from Henry Farny, Maynard Dixon, and others. Smith donated a western oil painting The Romance Makers by Charles Russell to the University of Notre Dame and it is on the collection of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. A book was written about Smith's art collection and donations in 1988, titled Collecting the West: The C.R. Smith Collection of Western American Art.

Smith also had a vast nautical art collection, which he donated to Admirals Clubs throughout American's route system. He is buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Smith was a Horatio Alger award winner in 1961. In 1974, Smith was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio. He was the 1976 recipient of the Tony Jannus Award for distinguished achievement in commercial air transportation. In 1992 he was inducted into the Airlift/Tanker Association Hall of Fame. American Airlines opened the C. R. Smith Museum in 1993 at its Fort Worth, Texas corporate campus. Smith was also the recipient of the Billy Mitchell Award and the Wright Brothers Memorial Award, as well as elected into the Travel Hall of Fame and the Business Hall of Fame.