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Thread: A Tribute to Carroll Smith

  1. #1
    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.



    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. A higher resolution of the photo is available. 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.

  2. #2
    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.



    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. A higher resolution of the photo is available. I can send it to you, or we will put it on our website &lt;fsae.uta.edu&gt; (no www), or we will try to get it on Carroll's website &lt;www.carrollsmith.com&gt;. We are working on getting a video of the speech at FSAE.

  3. #3
    What a loss.
    I'll never forget talking to him in our paddock in 2002 when he stopped by to check out our car.

    Travis Rouse - Test Pilot - The University of Texas (Austin)
    Travis Rouse - Test Pilot - The University of Texas (Austin)
    http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...s/fsae_sig.jpg

  4. #4
    I am trying to figure out how to insert the photo.

    [IMG]c:\_files\sae\photos\Carroll Smith with students - rotated.jpg[/IMG]

  5. #5
    Friends of Carroll Smith,

    Carroll will be having a family gathering on Tuesday in lieu of a funeral. Flowers are always nice even if they are spread out over a long period of time.

    Ginger suggested that contributions in his name be made to some racecar museum, a horse rescue shelter, or to the cancer society for the support of pancreatic cancer.

    In either case you will need his mailing address:

    Carroll Smith c/o Ginger Clarke
    5333 Grainflat Road
    Plymouth, CA 95669

  6. #6
    Wow... what a shocker.

    Having spoken with him one-on-one for about 20 minutes during each of the two FSAE competitions I attended, I was impressed by his bold (and well-informed) opinions about EVERYTHING. The man was not indifferent about anything, so far as I could see. Also, behind his serious attitude about racecar design and his somewhat gruff demeanor, I could tell he was just a goofy, light-hearted guy. It came out in his laugh; he couldn't hide it. ;-)

    I'm certain he'll be missed by all who knew him. He has definitely left his mark on the racing world in the form of his excellent "To Win" series of books. These books have proven invaluable to many of us in the FSAE world, as well as to people in other racing arenas, I'm sure.

    Thanks for everything, Carroll Smith. You'll be missed, but your legacy will live on, in the form of your books.

    -Rodney Sparks
    CSU Sacramento, 1998-2002
    Suspension and Frame Leader

    P.S. Does anyone else recall Carroll Smith's test for whether a stretched fastener is good or not? Throw it into a large body of water... if it floats, it's still good. ;-)

  7. #7
    The "floatation test" works for wheels with cracked spiders, too.

  8. #8
    Thanks to Dr. Woods and Co. for their eloquence and insightful tribute.

    I feel truly honored to have met and spent time with Mr. Smith and those close to him at FSAE and SCCA Nationals over the past 5 years. I didn't always agree with Him, but in hindsight, it was his views, and sometimes criticism, in part that helped drive me to improve, for which I am very grateful. I regret not being able to thank him personally.

    I am very saddened by the fact that not only did Carroll pass on the weekend of the competition this year, but that Ford Racing is the marquee for this years Monterey Historic Races, for which he will be undoubtedly honored. It would have been truly special to have seen him there, and pay tribute to his career.

    My condolences to his family and to racing for the loss of such a wonderful individual.

    Sincerely,

    Ian Stewart (AKA wingman)

  9. #9
    --Here is a letter from the family of Carroll Smith.--

    Dr. Bob,

    This is probably too late, but Christopher and I have been discussing the
    issue of donations and we've decided that when people ask what they should
    do about flowers or donations, tell them this:

    that in lieu of flowers the family requests that you lend a hand to a
    friend pursuing a dream.

    That's very much what Carroll was all about.

    Ginger Clarke

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