Dick Smith (entrepreneur)

Richard Harold "Dick" Smith, AC (born 18 March 1944) is an Australian entrepreneur, businessman, aviator, and political activist. He is the founder of Dick Smith Electronics, Dick Smith Foods and Australian Geographic, and was selected as the 1986 Australian of the Year. In 2010 he founded the media production company Smith&Nasht with the intention of producing films about global issues. In 2015 he was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia, and is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

Early life

Smith's maternal grandfather was famed pictorialist photographer Harold Cazneaux, his father a salesman and mother a housewife. As a child, Smith was considered hopeless and, having a speech defect, called himself ‘Dick Miff’.

From his home in East Roseville, Smith attended Primary School at Roseville Public School at which, for the Fifth Grade, he ranked academically 45th in a class of 47. He joined the The Scout Association of Australia as a cub in 1952, aged 8 and continued on to 1967, earning its highest honour, the Baden-Powell Award, in 1966.

Dick Smith

Dick Smith may refer to:

Sportspeople

Dick Smith (software)

Dick Smith (more formally, Richard H.E. Smith II) is a Chicago, Illinois- and Milwaukee, Wisconsin-basedsoftware engineer, computer consultant and a science fiction fanzine publisher.

Science fiction fandom

As a science fiction fan, Smith, with his wife, Leah Zeldes Smith, was 1993 winner of the Down Under Fan Fund and delegate to Swancon 18, the Australian National Science Fiction Convention in Perth, Australia, as well as to fan centers throughout the country. He has been selected as fan guest of honor by numerous science fiction conventions, including Windycon (1995),ArmadilloCon (1995), First Contact (1998), ConQuesT (2000), Whatcon (1985) and Corflu (1991), and has been a toastmaster at such conventions as ConFusion and a frequent speaker and panelist on subjects related to fandom, fan publishing, science fiction and technology.

The Smiths' fanzine STET was a three-time Hugo Award nominee. In the 1980s, Smith published the Hogu Award-winning title, Uncle Dick's Little Thing. He was extensively active in numerous amateur press associations during the 1970s and '80s, including the Fantasy Amateur Press Association and The Cult.; he co-founded Windyapa. The Smiths are currently members of the Milwaukee-based MilwApa. Dick was a recipient of the Peter J. Vorzimer Award.

Richard Smith (silent film director)

Richard Smith (September 17, 1886 – 1937), also known as Dick Smith, was a screenwriter, actor, and film director. Smith was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and became a comedian active in the vaudeville era. He met his wife Alice Howell in 1910 and the two performed together as Howell and Howell. After working under direction of Mack Sennett at the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in New York, Smith moved to Los Angeles, California. Smith and his wife starred in reels together produced by L-KO Kompany.

While Howell was contracted at Universal Studios, Smith directed her in films described in the book Clown Princes and Court Jesters as, "some of Universal's most memorable comedies of the twenties". With colleague Vin Moore, Smith directed actor Oliver Hardy in the 1920 film Distilled Love. Smith directed the Marx Brothers in 1921 in their first film, titled Humor Risk, which has since been lost. In 1925, Smith's directing work included films starring Bert Roach, Neely Edwards, and Charles Puffy. His contributions at Universal included a series of comedy films called "The Collegians".