FW: A Tribute to Carroll Smith

[Tim Rogers]

The following was sent to me yesterday from my good friend Steve Sayovitz.
As the official photographer and member of the rules committee of the annual
Formula SAE automotive competition between engineering schools, Steve had
come to know Carroll Smith (an annual member of the design judging panel) on
a first-name basis:

>>Suddenly you were gone
 From all the lives you left your mark upon.....

We were all saddened at Formula SAE this year to hear of the passing of
Carroll Smith.

Steve<<

>>A Tribute to Carroll Smith
18 May 2003

(This is the speech that was given to the FSAE banquet for the Carroll
Smith Mentor's Cup Award by Dr. Bob Woods, UTA)

As the first recipient of the Carroll Smith Mentor's Cup Award, Carroll has
asked me to announce this year's awardee.  As is painfully obvious to
everyone here, Carroll could not attend this year's competition.  What some
of you do know is that he had some health problems.  What you don't know is
the extent of his health problems.  Each person has the right to deal with
their health problems as they see fit and Carroll has chosen to keep his on
a personal and family basis.  I agree with him.  However, Carroll asked me
to bring you up to date on his situation at this time.

Two weeks ago, Carroll was diagnosed with level 4 pancreatic cancer.  We
all know Carroll to be a fighter and a winner, but this is one battle that
he did not win.  Carroll returned from the hospital to his new ranch in
northern California on Friday.  He was at home, happy, comfortable,
peaceful, and within a short period of time, Ginger said that he simply
quit breathing.

The good news is that he had enough time to realize his illness, come to
grips and make peace with it, but it was not prolonged and uncomfortable as
it could have been.  The bad news is that FSAE has lost an incredible
force, and many of us have lost a good friend.  I spoke with Carroll about
a week ago and he said that nobody could ask for a better life than he has
had nor better family and friends.

We all mourn his passing and feel a personal loss for the interactions we
could have had with him in the future.  But we also know Carroll well
enough that he would prefer that we celebrate his life rather than mourn
his passing.  So let's do that.  Carroll was formally educated as an
engineer almost everyone in the room here today thinks that is quite an
accomplishment.  Carroll was a teacher for a while... quite a few of us
admire that.  Carroll was a military pilot most of the population thinks
that is an exciting occupation.  Carroll became a racecar driver rising to
the top in high level races in Europe and around the world we certainly
envy that.  Probably everyone here will agree that being a racecar engineer
is even a higher position than a driver and Carroll certainly rose to the
top of that.  I once asked him what he considered his best achievement and
he said the GT40 program.  I guess so, they not only won one of the most
prestigious races in the world, but they took a 1-2-3 finish in Le Mans and
then went back to win again the next year.  Ford is going to put the
essence of that Le Mans car in production, and the "Carroll Smith Edition"
of a GT40 replica is being built in Australia already.  Perhaps an equaling
accomplishment is to engineer a Formula Atlantic for your son to drive to a
national title what a great father-and-son project.  Carroll shared his
knowledge by writing six books on racecar engineering in a series that has
be acknowledged around the world as the "bible" and is the "required
textbook" for this competition.  Last year Carroll was awarded the SAE
"Excellence in Engineering Education".  Even though he is not a professor,
he deserves this award due to the thousands of students that he has
influenced and helped educate in the Formula SAE competition.

In the last ten years, Carroll has taken on as a mission the design judging
of the FSAE competition, and has organized top judges from around the world
and turned it into one of the most prestigious and anticipated events at
the competition.  He has been respected and admired by the students at the
competition.  This photo of Carroll really says it all.  Here you see
Carroll, in focus, in shining light, encircled by layers of students
catching on every breath eager to hear any utterance of wisdom that he
might share.  Carroll's Australian slash hat is world-known as a part of
the icon of this great man.

 (a poster photo of Carroll Smith was shown at the banquet)

Carroll's accomplishments are numerous.  Most people would be honored to
have just one of the seven major career achievements mentioned above that
he has had.  He was an icon and a legend in his own time.  He was
respected, admired, envied, held in awe, and sought after for his knowledge
and experience.  For a few of us that got to know him personally as a
friend, we were richly blessed what a great friend!

Please join me in applause for Carroll followed by moment of silence.

(Followed by a standing ovation of more than 1000 and a long applause.)

For those of you that really knew Carroll, at this point he would say in
his matter-of-fact style "come on, get over it, let's move on".  So it is
now my pleasure to announce the SCCA "Carroll Smith Mentor's Cup" awardee
for 2003.  In 1999, I had the honor of being the first awardee.  When I
wrote him a letter and told him how honored I was, he said "I feel even
more honored to have an award in my name".  In 2000, Dr. Al George from
Cornell was selected.  In 2001, the awardee was Dr. Andrew Deakin from
Leeds University in the U.K.  In 2002, Dr. Ken Cunefare from Georgia Tech
was honored.  This year's awardee has been an advisor in FSAE for 10 years
and in Mini Baja and other competitions even longer.  His teams have always
been at the top in FSAE even since his first year.  He has taken teams to
FSAE and Mini Baja competitions all over the world.  He is active in SAE at
national levels.  He is just as deserving of this award as the others that
have been selected before him.  This year's "Carroll Smith Mentor's Cup"
awardee, selected by Carroll himself, is Dr. Alan Nye from RIT.

-Dr. Bob Woods
Faculty advisor, UTA
Woods@mae.uta.edu

P.S.  The photo is available in either high or low resolution.  I can send
it to you, or we will put it on our website <fsae.uta.edu> (no www), or we
will try to get it on Carroll's website <www.carrollsmith.com>.  We are
working on getting a video of the speech at FSAE.  The website <fsae.com>
has some discussions about Carroll.<<

Tim Rogers
-humbled