Checking my feeds, I found a short obituary noting the passing of Alvie L. Smith back on March 19. I figured somebody must have noted Alvie’s passing somewhere in the blogosphere, but a Technorati search turned up nothing.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Alvie was 84 and had been retired from his role as General Motors’ director of corporate communications two decades ago. Most people practicing communications today probably have never heard of him. But much of what we take for granted in the practice of employee communications was innovated by a handful of early adopters, Alvie among them, along with others like Myron “Mike” Emmanuel. The work of other acknowledged leaders like Roger D’Aprix was made possible by their early steps.

Alvie’s book, “Innovative Employee Communication: Nw Approaches to Improving Trust, Teamwork, and Performance,” has long been out of print and is out of date (no Internet, for instance), but Alvie’s work as captured in the book laid the groundwork for advancing employee communications beyond the production of house organs by secretaries.

Alvie went to work for GM in 1955 following an Air Force career that included 35 missions over Germany and France in World War II. At GM, he wrote more than 500 executive speeches (many for former GM President Ed Cole) and produced a variety of films. But I first became aware of Alvie, through IABC, because of his contribution to internal communications.

On reading of his death, I checked Amazon.com to see if his book was still in print and found he had written other books during his retirement, including one called “The Joys of Growing Old,” which earned strong reviews from readers. It turns out that he had been through six major surgeries and had gone blind late in his life, yet never lost his sense of humor or his passion for life.

Godspeed, Alvie.