Oliver R. Smoot

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Oliver R. Smoot
Born (1940-08-24) August 24, 1940 (age 85)
Bexar County, Texas, US
Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS)
Georgetown University (JD)
Occupations Expert witness, retired
Known forUnit of measurement known as a smoot
Height1 smoot

Oliver Reed Smoot, Jr. (born August 24, 1940) is a former chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) from 2001 to 2002 and president of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) from 2003 to 2004. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

In 2011, American Heritage Dictionary admitted his decapitalized surname, smoot, meaning a distance of 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m), as one of the 10,000 new words added to their fifth edition. The term is named for Smoot from his undergraduate days when he was used as a unit of measurement on the Harvard Bridge at MIT during a fraternity pledge activity. [5] [6] The bridge measures 364.4 smoots. [7] [8]

Early life and education

Smoot was born August 24, 1940, in Bexar County, Texas. He attended MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and obtained a Bachelor of Science in 1962. He then attended Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., where he obtained his JD.

Career

From 2000–2005, he served as vice president for external voluntary standards relations of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). Prior to that, he was ITI's executive vice president for 23 years. [9]

Smoot gave a speech to a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology's Subcommittee on Technology on March 20, 2000, titled "The Role of Technical Standards in Today's Society and in the Future".

He returned to MIT on October 4, 2008, for a 50th anniversary celebration, [10] including the installation of a plaque on the bridge. Smoot was also presented with an official unit of measurement: a smoot stick. [11] On May 7, 2016, he served as the grand marshal of the parade marking the centenary of MIT's moving from Boston's Back Bay into Cambridge. [12] [13]

Personal life

Smoot lives in San Diego with his spouse Sandra Smoot. He is also a representative of the MIT Education Council. He has a son and daughter, both of whom also attended MIT. [14]

Smoot is a distant relative of Senator Reed Smoot [15] and of Nobel Prize in Physics winner George Smoot. [16] [17]

References

  1. ↑ "Speakers Bureau: Oliver R. Smoot". American National Standards Institute. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
  2. ↑ Hall, Ralph M. "In Honor of an Outstanding American and His Work as President of the International Standards Organization: Oliver R. Smoot". GovInfo.gov. Government Publishing Office. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Oliver Smoot". Geni.com .
  4. ↑ "Past Principal Officers of ISO" (PDF). iso.org. International Organization for Standardization. January 2024. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
  5. ↑ Cornish, Audie (November 13, 2011). "Looking Up Words in a Book Not So Strange Yet". National Public Radio. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
  6. ↑ "smoot". American Heritage Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
  7. ↑ P., Emiko (October 27, 2023). "Repainting the Smoots". mitadmissions.org. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on February 29, 2024. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
  8. ↑ London, Jay (April 1, 2016). "MIT to Recalibrate the Smoot". alum.mit.edu. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved September 30, 2025.
  9. ↑ "Newsletter of the MIT Alumni Club of San Diego" (PDF). sandiego.alumclub.mit.edu. April 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 23, 2022. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  10. ↑ Harris, David (October 7, 2008). "Say Hello to Mr. Smoot of Smoot Fame". Catanbrigia. Archived from the original on September 7, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Smoot and roll" . New Scientist (2671). August 27, 2008. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
  12. ↑ Annear, Steve (January 25, 2016). "MIT to host 'Moving Day' parade and celebration". Boston Globe. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
  13. ↑ Fleming, Nicole (May 7, 2016). "By land and by water, MIT celebrates 100 years in Cambridge". Boston Globe. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Someone San Diego show know", San Diego Tribune , October 9, 2020
  15. ↑ "Washington Talk; Not Smitten With Smoot". New York Times. November 16, 1987. Retrieved May 23, 2022.
  16. ↑ Gil, Gideon (October 4, 2006). "At MIT, future Nobelist not above a prank or two". The Boston Globe.
  17. ↑ Smoot, George. "The SMOOT as unit of Length". Smoot Group Astrophysics and Cosmology. Laurence Berkeley Labs. Retrieved September 27, 2022.


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