Dick Smith is a true
Aussie legend. He started out as a
geeky kid with a
soldering iron and started a thriving chain of
Electronics stores. The kind where you could actually buy a packet of
diodes or
resistors and the
pimply teenagers working there knew how many
ohms would be resisted by the cool coloured bands.
In fact Dick Smith stores were the one true competitor to Tandy Radio Shack. So much so in fact that Dick Smith released a cloned TRS-80 model I named the System 80. Actually a cheap no-name Asian import sold around the world under a dozen names but it had fake wood panels on the sides like The Brady Bunch's station wagon.
When he grew up and got bored with being filthy rich he started circumnavigating the globe by helicopter. First he flew solo around the world, then he outdid himself by flying around the world latitudinally, visiting both the north and south poles and making a beautiful documentary along the way.
This must have caused him to notice that we had no National Geographic of our own down here. So he pulled a few million out of his back pocket and started up Australian Geographic which became so hugely successful that he got bored with it after a few years and went off in pursuit of further adventure.
Recently he's been getting pissed off at how many of our famous and favourite Australian food items are no longer Australian owned. (Vegemite and Four n Twenty meat pies for example). He's now got a bunch of Aussies around the country making clones of them all - and all 100% Australian. Mr Smith, we await your OzEmite.
Dick has also been in charge of the Australian Air Safety committee and won Australian of the year. Last I heard I just flew across the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand the wrong way to win a bit.
Some day when we bother to become a republic we need a guy like this for president.