Thank You Dad

Albert Scott Smith - June 6th 1944 – November 30th 2019

I decided that I needed to take a moment to share the impact of my father on my life and success. LinkedIn allows us to share our universities, professional affiliations and job history that have influenced us from a professional level. The greatest influence on my professional life is the nature and nurture impact of my parents and so I am writing this to honor my father as he passed away today.

My father is the first in his family to have a college degree, as he is the son of a West Virginia coal miner and just the 2nd generation born in the United States.  He received a degree in mathematics from Wake Forest University, which was effectively the predecessor degree to computer science. He used to hitchhike from the family home on Long Island to North Carolina which took determination to just attend school and work towards his future.

While not unique for his generation, but for the generations to follow, he only knew 3 employers in his entire career with one that lasted nearly 40 years.

His first job out of college was during the Vietnam War where he worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency where he had interesting roles that included handcuffed briefcases and helicopter rides to naval ships. But his primary role was where that mathematics degree transitioned to a computer science degree as he helped work on those early IBM computer systems very similar to those machines you saw in the movie Hidden Figures.

He then relocated to Rochester, NY, and Xerox where we worked and had the opportunity to visit PARC, but this job was just a short term stop until he found his lifelong opportunity with NTID (National Technical Institute for the Deaf) @ RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology). He will spend nearly 40 years of his life at this institution.

While there he was responsible for setting up a computing environment that started with punch cards.  As a kid, I used the cards more for drawing paper then programming, but it was the beginning of my exposure to technology. I was fortunate to have this connection as my father would bring home a portable computer (the predecessor to the laptop that weighed 29 pounds) plus he purchased the family an Apple II Plus with 64K of RAM and a floppy disk drive. I remember sitting for hours in the basement on the computer as I learned some basic programming and playing early computer games.

He also was responsible for the design and construction of new buildings and new services and saw the major growth and success of NTID and RIT. While there he finished his Masters and was a part-time adjunct professor to the deaf in mathematics.

Now I wish I could have said my relationship was great for the last 50 years, but there have been struggles in our relationship over the years. But my father did leave me with that same determination he used to hitchhike to NC for school, I went my own way and ended up in NC going to school on my own. He left me a stubborn streak which was a cause of some of the issues between us. He also left me with my ability to lead people, make and execute strategy and to be out in front and face problems. 

Not sure if it is nature vs nurture, but did leave me with his ability to appreciate logic and mathematics which has also gotten passed to my sons and his grandsons. He also passed down curiosity to technology as his grandson made a Windows Raspberry PI system at 11 years old and built his own gaming system at 12 years old.

In the last few weeks of his life, I did get to spend more than 2 full weeks in the hospital by his side. Now for much of the time it was a one-sided conversation as he just slept awaiting his next step. But this time of solace does make you reflect on your relationship and sift through the BS that may have prevented a better relationship and it allows you to appreciate the good.

So, dad, I hope you have found peace and I want to thank you for your legacy as you have left far more behind than just the family name.

Love your son.

Scott