Smith, John Frank, Jr., 2005 June 13

This is a Living History interview with J. Frank Smith, class of 1955, conducted by Marilyn Somers on June 13, 2005, at the Synergy Building in Atlanta, Georgia. The subject is the interviewee’s life and experiences at Georgia Tech.

Mr. Smith was born in Columbus, Georgia, in 1931. He grew up during the Depression and began attending school at the age of seven. Since there was no middle school in Columbus, Mr. Smith attended the same school though eighth grade and then began attending high school. He played football in high school. Although he was recruited by Coach Bobby Dodd to play for Georgia Tech, he chose to attend the University of Alabama in order to become a doctor. However, after a year of classes at Alabama and persistent recruiting by Coach Ray Graves, Mr. Smith decided to transfer to Georgia Tech. Mr. Smith majored in Industrial Engineering. He only practiced with the team during the first year, since he was not eligible to play. Mr. Smith joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He had a lot of good professors at Tech, but he remembers two of them particularly well—Professor Jim Sweeney and Professor Walter Buckingham. Mr. Smith also got to know Dean Griffin, because he once got Mr. Smith out of trouble resulting from a fraternity brother’s actions. Mr. Smith had to give up playing football in 1952 due to knee arthritis. However, he found something else to substitute for football—he fell in love with his future wife, Kathy Rogers. They began dating, and he took her to football games. Since Mr. Smith had a car, they were also able to go for dinner and dancing. They got married in August 1954, during Mr. Smith’s last year in college. Mr. Smith was exempted from some courses at Tech since he played varsity sports. He graduated in 1955. Since he had bad knees, he was not able to serve in the military. Instead, he began working for IBM as a salesman, and he stayed with them until 1970. He and his wife were tired of moving around, so in 1970, he started his own company called Computer Management, Inc. The company was successful, earning approximately twenty million dollars per year. After sixteen years, Mr. Smith sold the company and began working for American Software. After nine years, he had decided to retire, but he was coaxed into coming out of retirement and working for General Electric. After four years, he decided to retire a second time. In 1980, Mr. Smith had started The University Financing Foundation (TUFF), whose purpose was to finance buildings and research for equipment. In 2001, he came back to work with TUFF. Mr. Smith has been involved with the Alumni Association, within the Atlanta educational community, with the YMCA, and with his church. He has two sons and five grandchildren.