Ron and Rhonda Smith are the owners and directors of Fort Smith Mountain Men. 

Ron Smith is a native Texan educated at Texas A&M in Earth Sciences and Geology with additional business courses and PHR and HR Generalist cerification from the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a secondary teaching cerificate in Life/Earth Sciences. After teaching middle school science early in his career he moved into high-tech where he contributed eighteen years in corporate HUman Resources as an individual contributor, Manager, Director and Vice President in some of the leading companies in America. Ron has now focused his life on youth education and leadership. He is currently teaching Teen Leadership at Palo Alto Middle School in Killeen, Texas. He also maintains his HR Recruitment Services business, SouthWest Services.

• Worldwide travel and cultural interface in fourteen foreign countries
  
• Corporate experiences in employment / staffing, training & development, employee relations , university relations, career counseling and organizational effectiveness
  
• Trained as a BSA Wood Badge Scout leader
  
• Wilderness First Responder (WFR) medical trained
  
• Numerous leadership roles in the BSA Grand Canyon and Capitol Area Councils
  
• Numerous civic and community leadership roles

An original Meyer's Mountain Man back in the late 60's, Ron has been an active outdoorsman his entire life.  He has 13 years of youth, outdoor leadership experience in the Boy Scouts of America program as a Cub Scout leader, Assistant Scoutmaster, Troop Committee member, District Committee member, Explorer leader and is also an active Wood Badge trained Scout leader.

Ron's life mission now is to enhance the character development of young men through outdoor experiences and leadership training activities.  Ron is an "experienced" parent of four teenagers, one of whom is an Eagle Scout. He is married to Rhonda Smith, his childhood sweetheart who is a junior high school counselor in Georgetown, TX.

Ron says, "Today, more than ever before, boys need confidence and leadership skills to make the right decisions for themselves and those they touch in life."  Fort Smith Mountain Men is dedicated to boys and their future success.

Rhonda Smith:

Rhonda is a native Texan educated at the University of Texas, Southwest Texas State University and the University of Houston. She is a professional educator with over fifteen years experience in the classroom and as a junior high guidance counselor. Rhonda's intuitive abilities, communication techniques, experience and love for children has brought the expertise needed to calibrate the curriculum and content for the Fort Smith Mountain Men program.  Rhonda is an experienced parent of four teenagers.  Rhonda helped create this program to meet the needs she sees daily in young men for character and leadership development.

Rhonda’s background and experiences include:

• Bachelor's Degree in Education
  
• Master's Degree in Guidance and Counseling
  
• Fifteen years of public education / classroom teaching and counseling
  
• Head Middle school counseling experience
  

Fort Smith Mountain Men is an organization that is supported by an excellent advisory board.  This board has helped Ron and Rhonda construct the curriculum and the business from the standpoint of professional educators and parents.

Mr. Bob Meyer - The one, the only original Mountain Man from Austin, Texas. Bob has spent a lifetime building memories and character in boys by travel camping over 1 million miles through the Rocky Mountains! Bob is an outdoorsman’s outdoorsman. A gentle man and an accomplished educator, Bob has taught the lessons of life in the best university America has to offer…..the Great American West out-of-doors ! A former Scout Executive, a former Teacher of the Year in the Austin ISD, a former Fish and Game Supervisor of Education and Outreach, Bob is a true treasure known and loved by many. His expertise, interest and passion for this business has built Fort Smith Mountain Men into a legacy destined for success in the style of the Austin Mountain Man!


Mr. Carlos Cantu - Mr. Carlos Cantu is currently serving as Principal of Tippit Middle School in Georgetown, Texas.  He has over 26 years experience in education having served as teacher, coach, counselor and prinicipal.  He holds a BS in Spanish and History from Texas A&I University and an MS in Guidance  and Counseling from the University of Houston.  Carlos is a decorated military officer having spent 28 years in the U.S. Army Reserves retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.  Carlos brings his extensive leadership knowledge and experience with youth to the Fort Smith program.  He is married to Rosanne, an English teacher at Georgetown High School.  He enjoys the adventure of  working with young people and watching them mature into confident, independent  people.

Dr. Gene Davenport - Dr. Davenport has been involved in service to youth for the past 40 years as a public school educator.  He is currently President of his own consulting company, TEAMSMANSHIP ASSOCIATES.  Prior to this time he was a teacher, coach, superintendent of two Texas school districts and served as a state official at the Texas Education Agency.  He is active in youth and organizational leadership up through the synodical level of the Evangelical Church of America.  Gene is active in leadership with the Rotary International Organization.  He is the husband of Janet a former guidance counselor and father to three.  Gene is also a very active outdoorsman. He brings his breadth of interests and skills in youth development, the outdoors and organzational leadership to the Fort Smith program.

Mr. Nicholas Cowey - Nicholas holds a BS in Outdoor Recreation from Southwest Texas State University and has been active in the Boy Scouts of America his entire life.  An Eagle Scout holding over seventy merit badges Nicholas has extensive knowledge of both outdoorsmanship and the American Indian and Mountain Men cultures.  He has been a technical advisor to Turner Network Television productions on authenticity in clothing, hair, makeup and props working on the set of Two for Texas.  He has worked as Director of the Living History program for the BSA in Wisconsin at the Foxfire Outpost and was Camp Director at Lost Pines Scout Camp in Texas for seven years.  Nicholas brings his creativity, knowledge of youth and leadership programs and history to the Fort Smith program.

Mr. Mark Caddell - Mark is an experienced sales, marketing and communications professional with expertise in event promotions and management, public relations and internal / external organizational communications.  Mark received a B.A. in Communications from Baylor University with emphasis on visual communications and journalism.  He has created successful sales, marketing and communications programs for major companies and organizations such as IBM, Motorola, Computer Sciences Corporation, Muzak, Silicon Integration Initiative, the City of Austin along with many others.    Mark brings his creativity in sales and marketing along with his commitment to youth leadership to the Fort Smith program as board advisor on sales, marketing and communications.  He firmly believes in and supports the mission of the Fort Smith Mountain Men and only wishes he was a youth again so he could attend these incredible adventures!

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