Carleton Dabney Smith (1984)

DABNEY, SMITH, VAN SYOC

Posted By: Mary Welty Hart
Date: 12/24/2006 at 11:11:59

The Washington Post
Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, May 1, 1984
Page B6

Radio Announcer Carleton Smith Dies at Age 79

Carleton D. Smith, 79, a radio announcer who introduced President Franklin D. Roosevelt at all of his "fireside chats," a former general manager of stations WRC and WRC-TV in Washington, and a vice president of the National Broadcasting Co., died April 27 at Naples Community Hospital in Naples, Fla. after a heart attack.

Mr. Smith, who joined NBC in Washington in 1931 and was White House announcer for 12 years during Roosevelt's presidency, was active in business and civic affairs in Washington and was general campaign chairman for the first United Givers Fund drive here in 1956.

He was born in Winterset, Iowa, and came to Washington at the age of 17 to study at George Washington University. Although he never graduated, he served decades later on the GWU board of trustees and was a member of the executive committee.

As NBC's White House announcer during the 1930s, Mr. Smith introduced Roosevelt to nationwide audiences when the president broadcast his now famous fireside chats. Some of the equipment Mr. Smith used during his coverage of the Roosevelt presidency, the old-fashioned microphones and the watches for timing the broadcasts, were included in a Smithsonian Institution exhibit on FDR several years ago. He was one of two radio announcers invited to attend Roosevelt's funeral services at the White House.

In 1947, Mr. Smith went to New York for NBC as director of network television operations, and in 1951 he was elected a vice president of the company and placed in charge of network station relations.

He returned to Washington in 1953 as general manager of NBC affiliates WRC and WRC-TV. Under his direction, the stations won awards in 1956 for leadership in sales and public service activities among NBC affiliates. They were also recognized for continuing campaigns to clean up pollution in the Potomac River.

In 1960, Mr. Smith became Washington vice president for the Radio Corporation of America, a position he held until he retired in 1967.

During the 1950s, he was an advocate of the concept that charitable giving should be packaged into a single annual campaign that would embrace the whole metropolitan area. When that idea became reality in 1956 and the UGF was founded, he directed the first campaign and raised $6.6 million. The UGF is now called the United Way.

Mr. Smith was a former director of Potomac Electric Power Co., a trustee and founding member of the Federal City Council, and a director of the Washington Board of Trade. He was a member of the Metropolitan and Burning Tree Country clubs.

Mr. Smith lived in Washington until about five years ago when he moved to Florida.

Both his first wife, Anne Stiles Jones, and his second wife, Ruth Newburn Sedam, died before him.

Survivors include a son by his first wife, Carleton Craig Smith, of Leesburg; a sister, Mrs. Bryce Van Syoc, of Godfrey, Ill., and two grandchildren.
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The Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Wednesday, May 2, 1984

CARLETON D. SMITH

Carleton D. Smith, a native of Winterset, died Friday, April 27 at Naples, Florida, where he had a winter residence for a number of years. Death was attributed to a heart attack following surgery. He was 79 years of age.

A son of Samuel C. and Myrtle Dabney Smith, he was born in Winterset on Feb. 16, 1905. He was a 1922 graduate of Winterset high school, and attended his 60th class reunion here in June 1982.

Following graduation from Georgetown University in Washington, D. C., he became personal announcer for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his famous fireside radio chats to the nation. He later became manager of the N.B.C. station in Washington. Smith's radio career also led to executive positions as vice-president of N.B.C. and the parent R.C.A. company. In recent years he served as a director of the Potomac Elecric Power Co. in Washington, and as a trustee at George Washington University and of Equitable Life Ins. Co. of Washington.
He was the first campaign chairman of the United Givers Fund in Washington, and a founder of the Federal Council of Business Leaders in that city. An avid, life-long golfer, he was a member of Burning Tree club in Washington and the United States Senior's Golf Assoc.

He is survived by one son, Carleton Craig Smith of Leesburg, Va.; two granddaughters; and a sister, Florene Van Syoc Godfrey, Ill. He was preceded in death by two wives, and two brothers, Murray and Courtney Smith. Memorial services were held this Wednesday, May 2, from Trinity by the Cove Episcopal church in Naples. The body was cremated and will be committed to the family burial plot in the Winterset cemetery.
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Coordinator's note: Middle name taken from his gravestone.

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