Career
He received an electrical engineering degree from Georgia Technical in 1962. Smith moved to Huntsville, where he founded two successful companies, the earlier being modem manufacturer Universal Data Systems in 1969. Smith went on to co-found ADTRAN in 1986 with Lonnie McMillian.
As of 2007 the company had a market-cap of $1.7 billion.
Smith retired from ADTRAN in September 2005. He died in 2007 due to complications from pneumonia.