As an Omaha businessman and community leader, Roy Smith stood for ethical business practices and a social environment where everyone could succeed, regardless of race.
For many years his family owned H.P. Smith Ford and, later, Old Mill Toyota. In 1991, Smith was chairman of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.
Smith died early Monday at Methodist Hospital in Omaha. He was 76.
Services will be 1 p.m. Thursday at Countryside Community chuirch, 8787 Pacific St. Visitation will be 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday at West Chapel of Heafey-Heafey-Hoffmann-Dworak-Cutler Mortuaries, at 7805 W. Center Road.
Burial will be at Evergreen Memorial Park with full military honors.
Former Omaha Mayor Hal Daub was a close friend and turned to Smith for counsel when running for mayor and for Congress.
“Roy and I have been soldiers in many causes, side by side, and it has been a wonderful walk through life together,” Daub said.
“He was a loyal and dedicated husband and dedicated to his children. He really cared about those things that were moral and ethical. He took that philosophical and ethical commitment with him in everything he did,” he said. “In business, his cardinal rule was treat people fairly and make them a good deal.”
Smith was “a very respectful, congenial man,” Daub said. “You instantly liked him. The man just glowed. He was so positive and full of energy. He took good care of employees. He would never say an unkind word about anybody.”
Daub said Smith was long interested in Republican Party politics, involved in social causes and a dedicated volunteer for such groups as the Boy Scouts and United Way of the Midlands. Daub said Smith's work against racism has had far-reaching impact.
In 1992, as immediate past chairman of the chamber, Smith warned that racism could damage the city.
“Let the extremists stand aside, “ he said in a much-publicized speech to an audience of 900 at the annual chamber dinner. “The vast majority of people in this city who are good people can take charge and do something about racism.”
Daub recalled that Smith led a commission on race relations that involved more than 300 people representing such diverse groups as African-Americans, Hispanics, Koreans, Chinese, Arabs and Filipinos.
Smith advocated for better schools as an antidote to racial problems and worked for better housing and job opportunities. He condemned public slights and gestures of bigotry. The Urban League of Nebraska presented him with the Whitney Young Award in 1993. Mad Dads gave him the Brothers Award in 1994.
As a child in 1939, Smith moved with his family from Missouri to Omaha. His father, the late Homer Price Smith, founded H.P. Smith Ford in 1945.
Roy Smith attended Benson High School until transferring to an East Coast prep school. He graduated from Stanford University with a degree in international studies in 1956 and aspired to a diplomatic career. He changed his mind, he said, after Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., attacked government employees as subversives.
McCarthy, he said, destroyed the careers of honorable people in the foreign service.
“To see the damage that one demagogue like that can do, yeah, it's still a passion of mine,” he said in a 1999 interview.
Smith credited a Stanford classmate, Dianne Feinstein, with sparking his interest in politics. She is now a Democratic U.S. senator from California.
Smith served two years in the U.S. Marine Corps and returned to Omaha to help his father run the automotive business. He managed the business from 1962 until it was sold in the mid-1990s.
He came back to Omaha in part because his brother, Homer, did not want to run the business, instead going on to become a football offensive coaching legend at Army, UCLA and Alabama.
Throughout his career, Roy Smith volunteered in many business and community organizations. He was also a former Nebraska highway commissioner and served on the National Advisory Council of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Among his many honors were the Free Enterprise Award given by Rotary of Omaha in 1999, induction into the Omaha Business Hall of Fame in 1998, the United Way of the Midlands' Citizen of the Year in 1996, and the Boy Scouts Silver Beaver Award in 1973.
In 1995, Smith was a major contributor for the construction of the H.P. Smith Sports Training Facility, named in honor of his father, and intended to serve youths in South Omaha.
Smith was an avid reader and enjoyed jogging, skiing and golf.
His survivors include his wife Macaela; son Dave and wife, Lisa and granddaughter Morgan of San Jose, Calif.; daughter Sandy Smith and husband Kevin of Los Angeles, Calif.; brother Homer and wife Kathy, of Tuscaloosa, Ala.; and many nieces and nephews.
Contact the writer:
Contact the writer:
444-1052, jane.palmer@owh.com
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