Holy Toledo, Mr. Smith!

By John S. DeMott

General Motors Chairman Roger Bonham Smith, who turns 60 next month, does not look as if he would shake apples from a tree, let alone the entire trunk and limb structure of the world's largest automaker. He is moderate in build (5 ft. 9 in.) and pale of mien. He used to speak in a squeaky voice when excited, but he conquered it by forcing himself to take short breaths in midsentence. Smith can walk the floors of auto shows unrecognized, while customers and dealers flock to see his better-known rival, Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca.

Flash is not a part of Smith's business style. He prefers plain buttons to gold cuff links, quiet fishing trips to showy vacations in St.-Tropez. Last week in a lakeside resort in Salzburg, Austria, where he was attending a meeting of his European board of advisers, Smith wore the trademark pinstripe suit. Making no attempt at being suave, he cultivates a deceptive aw-shucks manner and punctuates conversation with his favorite expression: "Holy Toledo!"

There is a touch of mischief mixed in with his boardroom appearance. His darting mannerisms are not those of nervousness, but of a boyish restlessness, masking a powerful intellect. He is less successful at concealing triumph. Last week after the Hughes deal was announced, Smith walked with a spring in his step, bearing the happiest of inner smiles.

Born in Columbus, the son of a banker whose institution failed in the Depression, Smith moved to Detroit with his parents. His father got a new job with a parts supplier now known as the Bundy Corp. Young Smith went off to the University of Michigan during World War II, then spent two years in the Navy. He finished the work for his bachelor's degree in business administration at Ann Arbor in 1947, earned an M.B.A. there two years later and immediately joined GM's accounting department.

From the beginning, Smith showed a single-minded devotion to the corporation. His wife Barbara Ann understood. She was a GM secretary when they married in 1954. They have two sons and two daughters, but the father had limited time for them as he quietly made his way up through GM's corporate labyrinth. Smith once told the New York Times that his wife "literally raised our first three children. I was the guy who left town on Sunday night and came home on Friday night." The marriage prospered just the same. Last week the Smiths celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary. He now relaxes a little more, and even attends an occasional Detroit Tigers game with his sons, Roger Jr., 30, and Drew, 16.

Smith is due to stay on as chairman until 1990, when he reaches the mandatory-retirement age of 65. That would give him a 10 1/2-year reign, the longest since that of Alfred P. Sloan Jr., who ruled from 1937 to 1956 and developed GM's structure and strategy. Based on his first five years, Smith's impact at General Motors may be as great as Sloan's.

With reporting by Paul A. Witteman/Detroit