Innovative Former GM Chief Dies

DETROIT - Roger B. Smith, 82, who led General Motors Corp. in the 1980s and was the subject of Michael Moore's searing documentary "Roger & Me," died Thursday in the Detroit area after a brief illness, GM said.

He was appointed chairman and chief executive on Jan. 1, 1981, and led the world's largest automaker until his retirement on July 31, 1990.

During Smith's tenure as chief executive, Detroit-based GM introduced its first front-wheel-drive midsize cars, formed a joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp. to manufacture cars in California, created the Saturn brand and acquired Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems and Hughes Aircraft Corp.

"Roger Smith led GM during a period of tremendous innovation in the industry," current GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said in a statement. "He was a leader who knew that we have to accept change, understand change, and learn to make it work for us. Roger was truly a pioneer in the fast-moving global industry that we now take for granted."

Smith also served GM as an executive vice president and a member of the board of directors beginning in 1974.

Moore has become an Oscar-winning documentary maker, but he became famous with "Roger & Me," which explored how GM's plant closings and layoffs affected his hometown of Flint.

The 1989 film chronicles Moore's fruitless attempts to interview Smith about the devastation in Flint, although magazine articles and documentaries have alleged that Smith granted interviews to Moore prior to the film's release.

"I haven't seen it," Smith said shortly after the film was released. "I'm not much for sick humor, and I don't like things that take advantage of poor people."

At the time, Moore said he arranged with Warner Bros. to reserve a seat for Smith at every showing of the movie across the United States.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1925, Smith served in the Navy from 1944 to 1946. He received a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1947 from the University of Michigan, and a master's degree in business from the school in 1953.

His career at GM began in 1949 as an accounting clerk.