Roger Smith led GM during turbulent times

DETROIT — In 1981, John Bergstrom applied to General Motors three times asking to start a car dealership. GM rejected his requests all three times for lack of capital. So one night he hand-wrote a letter to then-CEO Roger Smith saying, "Please give us a chance."

Just a few weeks later, Smith sent someone to Neenah, Wis., to talk with Bergstrom and help him get financing. "We opened our little store," Bergstrom recalls. "Roger came to our grand opening in September 1982."

Today, Bergstrom owns 25 dealerships, 13 of which are GM stores.

Smith's family called Bergstrom last week to tell him that his 82-year-old friend and mentor had died. Smith is survived by his wife of 53 years, Barbara; four children; and six grandchildren.

"We wouldn't be in the automotive business if it weren't for Roger Smith," Bergstrom says. "I will miss him. He's the one who gave us a chance."

Smith died here Thursday, Nov. 29, after a brief illness. He was GM's chairman and CEO from Jan. 1, 1981, until his retirement on July 31, 1990.

"He was a leader who knew that we have to accept change, understand change and learn to make it work for us," GM CEO Rick Wagoner said in a statement.

Smith, who was born in Columbus, Ohio, on July 12, 1925, directed the automaker during a revolutionary period in the industry. In the early 1980s, he restructured the company, integrating Fisher Body into GM.

Smith also grouped divisions: Buick, Oldsmobile and Cadillac as one and Chevrolet, Pontiac and GMC as another. This upended the historic structure of autonomous divisions created in the 1920s by GM CEO Alfred Sloan.

It was a controversial move that eventually was reversed, but it started GM on its path to today's structure, in which divisions have been merged into a single sales organization.

"He had vision," says Dave Cole, chairman of the Center of Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. "He sometimes made decisions that would have been maybe made better as a team, but he was not afraid to make decisions."

After serving in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946, Smith started his career at GM in 1949 as a general accounting clerk in the Detroit central office. He had earned his bachelor's degree in business administration in 1947 from the University of Michigan, and he earned an MBA from the school in 1953.

During Smith's tenure as CEO, the U.S. auto industry saw increased competition from imports.

Under his leadership, GM introduced its front-wheel-drive mid-sized cars; formed New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., a joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp. to build cars in California; created Saturn Corp.; and bought EDS Corp. and Hughes Aircraft Co.

The acquisition of EDS and Hughes turned out to be smart financial maneuvers after GM spun them off, Cole says. GM also benefited from the two companies' technology, which enabled the automaker, for example, to develop embedded software in vehicles, he says.

Likewise, the creation of the Saturn brand allowed GM to create a more collaborative relationship with the UAW and a new approach to dealer-customer relations, Cole says.

"From a labor and management perspective, what was uniquely Saturn has become a philosophy throughout GM today," he says.

Some dealers say the creation of Saturn is probably Smith's most memorable accomplishment.

"Having three Saturn stores — if it hadn't been for him, I don't think that Saturn would have ever gotten off the drawing board," says Ed Williamson, owner of Williamson Cadillac in Miami.

And NUMMI helped GM learn about the Toyota Production System, Cole says.

In popular culture, Smith is best known for the less-than-flattering portrayal of him in "Roger & Me," the 1989 Michael Moore documentary film in which Moore set out to confront Smith over GM plant closings and job losses in Moore's hometown of Flint, Mich. The award-winning film launched Moore's career as a political satirist and dumped years of negative publicity on Smith and GM.

But those who knew him say that portrayal of Smith is not accurate. Cole, who duck-hunted with Smith in Canada, says Smith was a good person who loved the outdoors and had a strong personality.

"If you were to meet him the first time, you wouldn't see that because he wasn't big or strong," Cole recalls. "He had a weak voice. But he had a strong personality and a very strong ego.

"He didn't want to deal with people he didn't want to deal with, so his legacy is mixed. I think his legacy, as defined by Michael Moore, is very limited and tainted."

While Smith's legacy is mixed, one thing is clear: He is memorable, especially for Bergstrom.

"I keep his picture in my office on my back desk. I won't forget."