Catawba College News Service
If you talk a while with attorney Franklin Smith of Elkin, he is likely to touch on five words that hold a special meaning for him. In his resonant Southern voice, honed through years of practice in the courtroom, he will probably explain exactly why these words figure so prominently in his life.
First, Smith might tell you about his amazing corn crop, the one which still ranks among his “proudest achievements.” He was the “fourth in line” of eight children raised on a 100-acre farm in the Benham community of Wilkes County.
At age 10 and while a member of the local 4-H Club, the county agent “picked me out and asked me to raise the first acre of corn.” Smith says he “picked out the best acre of land and grew the corn in the perfect season with rain when we needed it.” The corn thrived and developed three to five healthy ears per stalk. “People came from all over and walked way around the acre just to see the corn,” he remembers. His acre produced 109.5 shelled bushels of corn when the average was only 10 shelled bushels.
Now more than 60 years later, Smith still remembers his crop and shares it as one of his personal parables of what hard work can accomplish, even for a 10-year-old farm boy.
During a three-year enlistment in the U.S. Army, Smith served in Korea in 1952 and 1953. He was trained at Fort Jackson, and then shipped to Korea and sent north of Seoul to Old Baldy. While there, he earned the National Defense Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, a Korean Service Medal-Two Bronze Service Stars, a Meritorious Unit Commendation and a United Nations Service Medal. He never made private first class; his first promotion was a battlefield promotion to sergeant.
After his discharge, he enrolled at Catawba courtesy of the G.I. Bill. His Korean motor pool experience served him well. Smith landed a job at a Texaco station in downtown Salisbury and worked there seven nights a week while attending classes.
Smith majored in political science and minored in English and dramatics. One of his most influential professors was Dr. Burnet Hobgood, a dramatics instructor and head of the debate team, whom he describes as “top drawer.”
While a student at Catawba, Smith completed practice teaching in Granite Quarry. Nearing graduation, he set about trying to find a teaching position back home in Wilkes County. The superintendent told him the only job they had was teaching driver’s education.
Thanks to a Chevrolet dealership in Wilkes County, Smith got a new 1958 Chevrolet and a gas card to use in his driver’s education job. He also met his wife Lena during this time and they became parents of four daughters who later graduated magna cum laude in English from Wake Forest, Catawba and Lenoir-Rhyne. Today, the Smiths have two granddaughters and two grandsons.
Smith taught driver’s education in his home county for three years, but he had his sights set on bigger things ó he wanted to go to law school at Wake Forest University.
“When you go to Catawba and Wake Forest, there isn’t anybody any better than you,” Smith quips. “I’ve been taught by the best people at Catawba and Wake Forest that were ever assembled in the South.”
Smith went home and worked for a year for attorney Charlie Neeves, solicitor for Surry, Stokes, Caswell and Rockingham counties in the 23rd Judicial District. After that, he set himself up in Elkin in private practice and the clients came, many of whom knew him from his driver’s education days.
“Nobody is more respected than lawyers. No one plays as vital a role in the community as a lawyer and you have to believe that, and you have to live it,” Smith says.
Smith has practiced law in his home county for 46 years. After 18 years of practice, Judge Thomas Seay of Spencer said at a statewide judicial conference that Smith had tried more cases than anyone else alive or dead.
Smith has argued two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and six cases before the Fourth Circuit Court in Richmond. He has also argued cases before the Federal Tax Court. Smith and his law clerks have written more than 237 briefs before the appellate courts. “The practice of law is not for the faint of heart,” he notes.
It is with thoughts of his home and the importance of his own education that Smith has established a scholarship at Catawba. The future recipients of the Franklin Delano Smith Endowed Scholarship Fund shall major in English and pre-law and may also minor in drama, music or foreign language, with qualified individuals from Wilkes, Surry and Yadkin counties being given priority consideration.
“Franklin Smith is a man whose hard work and effort have benefitted his community. Thanks to his generosity and foresight, future students from his area will be able to excel and thrive at his beloved Catawba,” says Catawba College Senior Vice President Tom Childress.