Roger Smith, CEO of GM Passes Away
Roger Smith, the subject of Michael Moore’s first major film, “Roger & Me” passes away at age 82.
In this morning’s news:
Former GM chairman, CEO Roger Smith dies
Automaker exec was subject of critical Michael Moore documentary
The Associated Press
updated 7:49 a.m. HT, Fri., Nov. 30, 2007
DETROIT - Roger B. Smith, who led General Motors Corp. in the 1980s and was the subject of Michael Moore’s searing documentary “Roger & Me,” has died, the automaker said Friday. He was 82.
Smith died Thursday in the Detroit area after an unspecified brief illness, GM said.
He was appointed chairman and chief executive on Jan. 1, 1981, and led the world’s largest automaker until his retirement on July 31, 1990.
During Smith’s tenure as chief executive, Detroit-based GM introduced its first front-wheel-drive midsize cars, formed a joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp. to manufacture cars in California, created the Saturn brand and acquired Electronic Data Systems and Hughes Aircraft Corp.
“Roger Smith led GM during a period of tremendous innovation in the industry,” current GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said in a statement. “He was a leader who knew that we have to accept change, understand change, and learn to make it work for us. Roger was truly a pioneer in the fast-moving global industry that we now take for granted.”
Smith also served GM as an executive vice president and a member of the board of directors beginning in 1974.
Moore has become an Oscar-winning documentary maker, but he became famous with “Roger & Me,” which explored how GM’s plant closings and layoffs affected his hometown of Flint.
The 1989 film chronicles Moore’s fruitless attempts to interview Smith about the devastation in Flint, although magazine articles and documentaries have alleged that Smith granted interviews to Moore prior to the film’s release.
Moore has acknowledged a five-minute interview with Smith about a company tax abatement at a 1987 shareholders’ meeting, but said that was before he started working on the movie.
Smith often faced questions about the documentary, which contained interviews of people who said they lost their homes after GM plant closures in Flint.
One woman said she had to start killing rabbits for food after GM shut down the plants, eliminating 30,000 jobs in the city of 150,000.
“I haven’t seen it,” Smith told reporters shortly after the film was released. “I’m not much for sick humor, and I don’t like things that take advantage of poor people.”
At the time, Moore said he arranged with Warner Bros. to reserve a seat for Smith at every showing of the movie across the United States.
Smith was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1925 and served in the Navy from 1944 to 1946. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1947 from the University of Michigan, and a master’s degree in business from the school in 1953.
His career at GM began in 1949 as an accounting clerk. He became treasurer in 1970 and vice president in 1971. In 1974, he was elected executive vice president in charge of the financial, public relations and government relations staffs.
He led the company as import brands began to expand their market share and as GM grew its global business and dealt with tough U.S. environmental and safety standards.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I thought this was an important story considering how Moore hounded Smith and made claims that Smith was dodging him and afraid of him. Of course this was later proven untrue when it was discovered that Smith had granted Moore an interview. It’s funny considering how this seems to have set the pace of the rest of Moore’s films in which he continued to cherry-pick info and even omit quotes or take them out of context to serve his own purposes.
I liked Smith’s comment, “I’m not much for sick humor, and I don’t like things that take advantage of poor people.”
If only Moore believed the same thing.
I’ll be checking in on Moore’s site throughout the day to see if he even mentions this recent event or if he continues to only address his self-promotion of “Sicko”.
Considering that it was really Roger Smith who even gave Moore his first break into fame, I would think he owes the guy at least a sidebar on his site!
UPDATE
Well shut my mouth and call me Suzy! Moore actually featured Mr. Smith on his site:
Roger Smith on Moore’s Site
Not to be too critical of the big guy, but I noticed he didn’t have anything to say about the passing of the guy who really put Moore on the map in Hollywood. Granted, he put a nice photo of Smith smiling and provided info for those who wish to donate to the Roger B. Smith Memorial Fund to Benefit the Fight Against Cancer, but I don’t know there’s something a little off. A little fishy. A little suspect about it all.
Maybe it’s because of how Moore villified Smith in his film and in all of his interviews regarding Roger and Me.
Maybe it’s how Moore has a history of using the suffering and deaths of others for his own advantage without any kind of respect or compensation for those people.
Maybe it’s how Moore promotes socialized medicine while also seeming to support private donations to medical causes (something that seems to go against the idea of socialized medicine)
or maybe it’s just that Moore is so shady, so snake-like and so sneaky that anything he does that appears to be charitable or humane always has the underlying stench of self-promotion and ulterior motives wafting up to greet those who are not fooled by his sleight of hand and propaganda.
Comments
Cant you just see him now patting himself on the back for being so kind and generous to provide into regarding the Roger B. Smith Memorial Fund to Benefit the Fight Against Cancer, a cause that was created in the name of his “greatest adversary” or some other such nonsense.
Kind of like the way he used JimK and the money he contributed to try make himself look like a generally nice guy who really just wants to do good but nobody seems to understand him?
Of course Moore put Roger Smith’s obit on his page. People would expect him to mention it in some way. Him NOT having something about his death on his site would prob raise some eyebrowns.
As of Smith being his “greatest adversary” - that’s hardly true. He made a movie where Smith featured a long time ago… that’s the extent of their relationship. I’ve never ever heard Moore himself bring up the issue of Smith for any reason.
Promoting the cancer fund, per request of the family, is just good taste. I mean - who wouldn’t do that?
I’m waiting for some further statement from Moore as that would be interesting to read. Other than that - there is nothing to say about Moore’s (or prob one of his aides) handling of this matter - one way or the other.
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Well, we do know his history with “charity” for medical reasons.