Major Bob Smith

[Ron Hill]

I think Bob retired as a Captain, but I always called him Major Bob because that is what he liked being called.

Many people that know me often ask me what it is like to have lost my mind......but when it comes to Major Bob, I ask him the same question and he gives me a very strange look....Bob almost got me into the Air Force in 1969, probably should have joined up when I could have. Bob flew many missions in Vietnam and I had often thought he had flown the most.

At Whitney Point, 2008, I met Bob's friend, Dick Guild. Dick flew more missions than Bob in Vietnam. He flew 450 missions in F-105's and F-4E.

Dick was Bob's pit crew...Bob didn't win, but they seems very happy at the EVENT......Win our lose these two are GREAT AMERICANS...

Bob is CEO of www.renewablefusion.com (http://www.renewablefusion.com) something I don't understand, but Bob believes in it....Of course my IQ is close to normal, not 2000...

Bob is on the right...Dick to the left.

ADD: Bob lived in OHIO as a kid and grew up racing against Jon Culver and the GREAT Dean Chenoweth....

Bob also thinks that Dick and Billy Giles, the boat racer, maybe related....as they found in local cemetery, some Guild history.

[Ron Hill]

It has been a quick 14 years since Chad and I last went to the Miami Boat Show. Last time there we met Major Bob, Dave Christner and O.F. Christner. Bob had us out to his place and we cruised the Inland Waterway for several hours, it was great fun. I spent ten days in Lauderdale a few years ago at a water polo meet, but failed to find Bob at the time.

With APBA's help I got Bob's e-mail and e-mailed him. This is his return e-mail. Eating a sandwich during a marthon sounded like a Ted May story.

I called Bob's son yesyerday and asked him to meet up soon. Mark asked questions about his dad's racing. I said when Bob was in Vietnam, he left his Runabout behind at DeSilva's. I borrowed the boat and ran it almost all season, 1968. When Bob returned from Vietnam, he bought a new DeSilva just like mine, except he made them add a big cowling, some what looked like a Luce boat today.

Great American family here. I'm hoping Bob will post some of his pictures and stories.

I would especially like to hear the story of Jon Culver's first 8 reed reed block on a KE-7.




"Ron, Great to hear from you. Of course we can hook up. I have been going to the Miami Boat show every year and have looked for your booth, but no Ron and no Chad, but that is about to change. I still have my Sea Ray on a boat lift behind my house in Lauderdale By-The-Sea (Pompano Beach) that we went out on one evening. We can do that again if you want as well. I just arrived in Florida this afternoon for my monthly one week visit. I am the pool guy, etc., etc, etc.

Tomorrow morning, my Uncle Dick (Skipper Smith) owner of the fast Formula E Hydro 78-F is going in for surgery. Back in 1948, I ran my first outboard marathon in Dayton, Ohio on the Miami River. I ran the A class with an Evinrude "Lightfour" on a 12 foot Century racing boat. The race was 100 Miles long and was called the "Dayton 100 Miler". The speed of my boat was approximately 28 MPH. The race took me approximately 4.5 hours and I won the A Class. My Father won the C Class and Jon Culver won the B-Class with a "Lightning Ten" on a 12 foot molded plywood hull, and Merlyn Culver, Jon's Dad, won the D Class with a 25 Mercury on a Speedliner. But, what I remember most besides the fact that the last hour it rained very hard, was that my Uncle Dick pulled up along side of me in a B Utility and handed me a sandwich and a bottle of orange pop for an on the go racing lunch at about the 2 hour point during the race, a lap race on the Miami River, south of Dayton, OH!

Check in when you have time. My son Mark is the finance officer at LA AFB, CA in El Segundo. He is going to Bagdad, Iraq, in February 2010. If you have a chance, maybe you and Chad can check in with him before he goes to Iraq and pump him up a little... He lives in Hermosa Beach and his cell phone is . "

Keep pressing,

Bob

[Ron Hill]

Ron,

Roger. Have a great Thanksgiving and Christmas in the meantime. My son Mark is back from Afganistan and is now stationed at Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, AL. Tommy is a Missilier at Malmstrom AFB, Great Falls, Montana. They are both Captains in the USAF, like I was when we were racing at the Kemble Campble Ranch in Victorville, CA.

Bob

I told Bob it was Kemper-Campbell Lake, and it is a trout farm now owned by the state of California...Our tax dollars at work took a great race site from us.

[Ron Hill]

Major Bob sent me this email after BRF sent him a birthday wish. I thought some of you would be interested. Major Bob as a Kid raced against Dean Chenowith and Jon Culver in the Dayton, Ohio area. He's believed in COLD FUSION for 20mplus years.

He once tried to get me in the Air Force, asll I had to do is sign on the dotted line.

Dear Ron,

Thank you for the birthday greeting. Lifetime friends are unbeatable! The doctor freezes my face at 62 years old with liquid nitrogen, so all the young girls still want me! Yesterday, I worked several hours on my A-Mod-Hydro modification to the left front sponson on my Bezotes. I hope it will help avoid flips to the fin side (left) like the one that broke my fibula in my right leg. It has healed up now and I am starting to get motivated to winding the hot rod up again. I still have a current FAA medical for flying. I pinned on my son Mark's US Army pilot's wings (1.5 year program) back in January at Ft Rucker, AL and he is now flying the Blackhawk helicopter in Germany. Tommy is analyzing drone data from the war zones as a Captain in the USAF (like I was in Victorville, CA when we used to race around the island on the Kemper Campbell ranch). He is currently stationed at Langley AFB, Virginia so I see him more frequently now that he is here in VA. I gave a technical paper on Cold Fusion Reactors, at MIT in Cambridge, MA back on 23 March 2014, the exact 25th anniversary of the technology. A guy in Ohio read the paper and is considering funding a prototype reactor. If he gets the funding together, there is some possibility that I will be working on the project in Ohio near my son Scott and his family. That is most of my current news. Give me an update for your activities when you have a moment.

Bob

[Ron Hill]

Major Bob told me that those guys in Utah "Discovered" Cold Fusion, but their mistake was telling the world, as the world wasn't ready to stop[ being dependent on oil. He said he's done the calculations himself and believed it.

Considering a got "D" High School Algebra, I had no clue what he was talking about. I did get an "A" in Geometry, my brother taught me the whole class one night...

Bob told me "WILD" tales about these guys from Utah being "OWNED" by Toyota and were in France and that he fly "THINGS" to Russia at times.

When I read this newspaper article this morning I wondered if Bob's company was part of the WORLD SHAKING EVENT.

[Danny Pigott]

I met Bob a few years ago at a race in Wilson NC. He is a trip, I will tell about it later.

[crewman060]

As Mr.Art said one friday morning at Gary's shop,cold fusion is the sound of a co-eds hair dryer,and he knows a thing or 2 about it.

[Ron Hill]

Art is the only person that I ever heard of majoring in wood shop and Nuclear Physics. Art told me he quit working with nuclear stuff when he realized they could blow up the world. That is when he started teaching wood shop. But I don't understand your hair drying comments.

Reading the fine print of the article, it didn't say "COLD FUSION". It may just be minature atomic bombs.

[Ron Hill]

OLD BOAT RACERS
We always called him Major Bob, but really he was a Colonel.
Fw: Happy Birthday from Boat Racing Facts Forums
People
On Thursday, July 28, 2016, Boat Racing Facts Forums
Hello Colonel Bob,
We at Boat Racing Facts Forums would like to wish you a happy birthday today!
Dear Ron,
Thank you for the birthday greeting! I just decided to cancel my registrations at the Hinton, WV Nationals, where I had planned to enter some classes. This is my 70th year of boat racing and my family says it is time to quit.
I will never quit racing in my mind. I can still see every turn of the Top'of Michigan Marathon. I can still see Dave Bryant's smile as he passed me just before the finish line at the Kemper-Campbell ranch where my Mark 30 ceased up because the gas that Dave had given me had no oil in it!
I still remember the great boat race at Willows, CA Divisionals in CU with you Ron. Your Dad told me that he was happy to see you engage in some real competition. I then won many DU/DSR races with the Bounty Hunter that he helped you to build. My Dad was like your Dad, a major reason for my successes in boat racing.
Thanks for the memories Ron,
Bob
78-S and 78-E


Bob, I had lunch with Dave yesterday.....As I recall the story, you asked to borrow gas, so Dave loaned you some. You didn't ask it if was mixed with oil. You said, "GAS." Because the next questions would be how much oil, what kind of oil?
At the Parker 9 Hour, one year, Jimbo was leading and ran out of gas and stopped it my pits. I ask him what was a matter, said, "Out of gas." I said to you want some? He said, "What kind?" I said "AV Gas." He said, "What octane? Keep in mind Jimbo was leading the Parker 9 Hour at the time. Said, "100-110." He said, "What kind of oil?" I said Mercury Racing." He said, "What mixture?" I said, "20 to 1." He said, "OK, give me a gallon."
I'm not sure I ever thanked you for loaning me your boat while you were in Vietnam.