Early life
Michael King Smith was born in Portland on January 20, 1966, and raised in McMinnville.[7] His obituary in The Oregonian says he was class president all four years at McMinnville High School. He graduated in 1984 and earned the rank of Eagle Scout.[7] He went on to graduate from the University of Washington in 1989.[7][9] From 1986 to 1989 he also raced cars professionally in the Super Vee series.[7]
Military service
Smith was commissioned as a U.S. Air Force second lieutenant in 1989.[7][9] Papers in the collection record his solo flight at Hondo Airfield on October 4, 1989, in the Air Force Flight Screening Program, and his graduation from the Air National Guard Academy of Military Science that December. See the solo certificate and the class photograph and letters on The Collection page. He finished undergraduate pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base, where he received the Commander’s Trophy, Distinguished Graduate honors, and the Flying Excellence Award. The memorial plaque dates those honors to 1991.[9] The same year he completed Fighter Lead-In Training at Holloman AFB and F-15 training at Tyndall AFB.[9] Certificates in the collection record his water survival training at Homestead Air Force Base in February 1991, his first F-15 solo on July 2, 1991, and his completion of the F-15 operational training course with the 95th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron on October 11, 1991. See the certificates on The Collection page. He then flew as an F-15 pilot and flight lead with the 123rd Fighter Squadron, Oregon Air National Guard, and held the rank of captain.[7][9][10]
Business & community
Alongside his Guard service, he was president of Evergreen Ventures, Inc., and of the Evergreen AirVenture Museum. He founded the Evergreen-Doe Humane Society and was president and founder of Quality Aviation Services.[7][9] He sat on the board of Valley Community Bank in McMinnville. His obituary also lists him as owner and operator of Carolyn Orchards in Dundee.[7]
“…your spirit, enthusiasm, sacrifice and courage but most of all your friendship.”From the 95th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron’s certificate for Michael’s first F-15 solo, July 2, 1991. Read the certificate.
The museum was his idea
Wikipedia and the Oregon Encyclopedia both credit Michael with first envisioning the museum.[6][11] He and his father began collecting vintage aircraft, and the Evergreen Museum opened in 1991 with a small collection in a hangar at company headquarters. It was renamed the Evergreen AirVenture Museum in 1994.[11] In 1992 the museum won the bid for the Hughes H-4 Hercules, the “Spruce Goose,” with a proposal to build a new museum around it.[3][11]
March 1995
On Saturday, March 18, 1995, a car ran off the road near The Plains in Fauquier County, Virginia. It slid down an embankment and struck a utility pole. Michael’s brother, Mark, was driving.[8] Fellow 123rd Fighter Squadron pilot Maj. Rhory R. Draeger, a Gulf War F-15 pilot with two aerial victories, died that day.[8][9][10] Michael died two days later, on March 20, at Fairfax Hospital. He was 29.[7][8] The Washington Post identified him as “of Dundee, Ore.”[8]
In his memory
In 1997 the museum was renamed the Captain Michael King Smith Evergreen Aviation Educational Center.[11] The street in front of it is Captain Michael King Smith Way.[1][13] An F-15 Eagle stands on a pedestal across the highway from the museum, with memorial plaques for Captain Smith and Major Draeger, and a bronze statue of Michael stands on the museum grounds.[7][9][11] His father went on to build the museum in his honor. As the museum’s director put it, Del Smith “poured himself into his son’s museum idea.”[3]
Three months after his death, on June 17, 1995, Michael was honored in Memory Lane in the International Forest of Friendship in Atchison, Kansas, “for exceptional contributions to aviation.” The Forest is a memorial to aviation and aerospace, with honorees’ names set in granite plaques along its paths.[29] His certificate is in the collection. So is a copy of Desert Warrior, the Gulf War memoir of Saudi Arabia’s General Khaled bin Sultan, inscribed to Del in November 1996 “in remembrance of your son Mike.” See the certificate and the book on The Collection page.
