SMITH, Carl E. 1906-1998

SMITH, HUTTON, MCGUIRE, LAUGHLIN, MANNING, POLLOCK, LINGE

Posted By: slm
Date: 11/15/2012 at 02:48:33

Fairfield Ledger (Ia.)
Tuesday, May 5, 1998

Carl E. Smith

Carl E. Smith, 91, Brecksville, Ohio, died at Meridia South Pointe Hospital Saturday, May 2, 1998.

Funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Northfield Baptist Church in Sagamore Hills, Ohio. Burial will be in Crown Hill Cemetery. Visitation will be 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. today at Ferfolia Funeral Homes in Sagamore Hills. Visitation also will be from 10 a.m. until the service Wednesday at the church. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Wesminster Church, 8200 Snowville Road, Brecksville, Ohio 44141.

Mr. Smith was born Nov. 18, 1906, on a farm near Eldon to Seldon L. and Myra Hutton Smith. He married Hannah B. McGuire in September 1932. He graduated from Fairfield High School with honors in 1924, then earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Iowa State University in Ames in 1930. He graduated with an MSEE in 1932 and then he earned a professional degree in electrical engineering in 1936 from Ohio State University in Columbus.

Mr. Smith founded the Cleveland Institute of Electronics, Inc., in 1934 in Cleveland with 16 students and wrote many of the initial courses. Under his initial presidency, it grew to be the world's largest electonics training correspondence school.

He worked for more than 20 years for United Broadcasting Company/WHK owned by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as an engineer and later became vice president in charge of engineering. During World War II, he was invited to work in the operational research group at the Defense Department in Washington, D.C., from 1942-1946. He was in charge of training section and supervised the writing of radar and antenna training manuals. he returned to work at WHK and in 1948 developed and put the first licensed, commercial FM station on the air in Cleveland.

Smith started an internationally well-known consulting electronics firm active in developing radio, TV and shortwave stations. He engineered the Navy's low-frequency 2-million-watt radio station in Curler, Maine, in 1957 for communication to submerged submarines in the North Atlantic. He also engineered many antenna systems for the Voice of America including its largest in North Carolina and in Munich, Germany. He did consulting work with more than 360 station worldwide.

Smith holds many patents and conducted or assisted in 23 directional AM antenna seminars from 1969-1994.

Smith inherited the house in the American Gothic painting by Grant Wood. The house, located in Eldon, was purchased by Smith's father in a tax sale in 1943. The house was dedicated as a historical landmark in 1980 and then gifted to the state of Iowa as a tourist attraction in celebration of Grant Wood's 100th birthday in 1991.

Smith received eight special awards for his creative and pioneering work and was inducted into the Broadcaster's Hall of Fame in 1992 and the National Religious Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1994.

Smith was the founding father of Wesminster Church (Presbyterian Church in America) in Brecksville in 1983. He had been active in the local Christian Business Men's Committee and Gideon's International.

Survivors include six children, Larc of Brecksville, Darvin of Boulder, Colo., Barbadeen Laughlin of Ava, Mo., Margene Manning of Mentor, Ohio, Ada Kay Pollock of Hudson, Ohio, and Ramona Ling_ of Brecksville; 17 grandchildren; 1_ great-grandchildren; and one sister, Mildred Mannning of Libertyville.

He was preceded in death by his wife in 1995.

(Volunteer transcription. I am of no relation.)