Dave Drachlis
Media Services Branch
(256) 544-0034
dave.drachlis@msfc.nasa.gov

Release: 97-264

Susan McGuire Smith, associate director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has announced that she plans to retire from NASA by the end of the year.

Smith said she is looking forward to joining her husband in the family business, a Huntsville-based firm that provides training services, technical assistance and publications to federal agencies.

She has served as associate director of the Marshall Center since 1996 -- a position in which she provided executive leadership to the institutional management of one of NASA’s largest and most versatile centers. Smith also has served as the center’s liaison with Huntsville and the surrounding community.

A graduate of George Washington University, where she received both her bachelor’s degree and Doctor of Jurisprudence, Smith began her professional legal career in Washington, D.C.

She left private practice to join NASA in 1974, serving in the Office of General Counsel at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. From 1977 to 1978, she served as assistant counsel to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics. She then returned to NASA Headquarters as deputy assistant general counsel for general law.

In October 1980, Smith transferred to the Marshall Center as deputy chief counsel. She was appointed chief counsel of Marshall Center in 1982, serving in that position until being named the center’s associate director.

Among Smith’s numerous awards are the NASA Exceptional Performance Award, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal. In 1989, Smith was awarded the Presidential rank of Meritorious Executive, and in 1993 she received the Presidential rank of Distinguished Executive.

Smith is a former Woodrow Wilson Fellow and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Order of the Coif and Law Review at George Washington University National Law Center.

She has been active in many community organizations, including the Huntsville-Madison County Botanical Garden, the Business Advisory Council of the College of Administrative Science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the North Alabama Science Center and the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce.

Smith is married to Ralph Smith, and they have a son, Ian.