C.R. Smith*

Born in 1899 in Minerva, Texas, C. R. Smith worked as a youth to help support his mother and six brothers and sisters. He served as a bookkeeper for a bank and a cotton mill, and worked in the state's tax department. Even though he had not completed high school, Smith put himself through the University of Texas by working as a part-time federal bank examiner and operating a one-man direct mail agency.

After he graduated, Smith served as an accountant for Peat Marwick Mitchell. He then became an accounting specialist in public utilities and was later named assistant treasurer of the Texas-Louisiana Power Company.

In 1928, the company's president asked Smith to manage a local airmail carrier he had purchased. In that position, Smith learned how to repair, buy, and fly airplanes.

When Aviation Corporation bought out the airline in 1929, Smith became vice president in charge of the southern division. He came to be known as the airline's best operations man. In 1934, at the age of 35, Smith took over the presidency of the newly organized American Airlines.

After serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II as a major general, Smith returned to his airline. In 1946, he started to expand internationally with the creation of American Overseas Airlines.