TEX Smith

[river1]

just read on facebook that TEX Smith has passed :cry:

i only met him a few times he always treated me as a friend.

he was good people

later jim

[phat rat]

The loss of another icon. I visited with him once when he was living in Driggs.   RIP Tex

[sirstude]

That's too bad.  I got to know Tex pretty well through a friend of mine.  He used to sped time up here in Helena and then of course, every time I went to Speedweeks, I got to sped a  bit of time with him.  He even published me one time in Hot Rod Mechanix, the only official ink I ever got.

Doug

[Carps]

Tex was a great bloke who I'm proud to call my friend.

A Hot Rodding pioneer, who was part of the action every step of the way, Tex was the quintessential shade treet mechanic and innovator.  A real scrounger with enough imagination that he could see the hot rodding merrit in all manner of items and components that may have otherwise been ignored or simply thrown away.

If not for Tex and his best mate Tom Medley, hot rodding as we know it might be a whole different deal today, it would surely be the worse for him not being the man he was.

If not for Tex we might all be ignorant of so much that we have learned and take for granted, because he was also one of the world's great communicators.

Our last get together was typical of Tex, even though he was quite ill and somewhat frail, he was more than up for some shennagians and making a little noise with my orange car, which he called a modern hot rod.
Since my wife became ill we didnt catch up as often as I'd have liked and I'm going to miss his wry smile, sharp wit and stories some surely a tad tall, but most very most true, of days gone and those that might be yet to come.

Rest in peace old tymer.  

[enjenjo]

I first met Tex about 30 years ago at the Nats in Columbus. A few years later I became friends with Carl Brunson, and would see Tex quite often when I was at Carl's shop in Vegas. He would pump me for interchange information, and I was mentioned in several of his How To books. I loved his style of writing, he could make any subject interesting. He encouraged me to write a book on interchanging parts, I made several starts but could never come up with something I was happy with. He was truly one of the driving forces of Hot Rodding.

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Rest in peace Tex.

I met Tex in about 1964 when he ran the NHRA Car Club program. I will miss him greatly.

Charlie

[Crosley.In.AZ]

never met Tex.  Read many of his articles.

He had the dollar hotrod car as I recall?

[Carps]

Today we celebrated the life of Leroi 'Tex' Smith.  And what a celebration it was, Tex would have enjoyed it like he did everything in life.

However, he may also have blushed more than once or twice coz that's the way he was when it came to blowing his own trumpet.

It also reinforced what I learned earlier in the year and that is, that the global hot rodding family is just the best mob to be a member of, coz despite our differences (and let's face it, Tex would be the first to tell us all that's what makes hot rodding such a great pastime), everybody is there to support everybody else in their moment of need, no matter what.

Larry O'Tool's eulogy was amazing, as he so succinctly summarised Tex's brilliant life, probably not covering everything Tex achieved, but that's only because he achieved so much.
Hard to believe one man could pack so much into his life and remain so humble, makes me want to read the book even more than ever now.