I was lucky to know Lee Smith

by Dan Oswald

I was extremely sad to learn today that Lee Smith, the founder of M. Lee Smith Publishers, passed away Tuesday night.

Lee was a true southern gentleman and a savvy businessman. Lee founded his company in 1975 and built an incredible business that successfully served hundreds of thousands of customers over the years. I had the privilege of knowing Lee as a colleague in our industry for many years before having the opportunity to relocate to Tennessee and purchase his company from him.

I’d like to share the story of how I came to own M. Lee Smith Publishers because it provides great insight into the man Lee was. In late 2002, Lee called me in an attempt to recruit me to run the company he had founded. I was flattered, but I informed him that I was really interested in acquiring a company. His response was, “Well, let’s talk about that.” So we did. Through a couple of conversations, I discovered that Lee was actually open to the idea of selling the company he had built.

So I arrived in Tennessee in early 2003 to meet with Lee and his financial adviser about my possibly acquiring the company. The result of that meeting was a three-page letter that spelled out the terms of our agreement. The letter called for me to relocate my family to Tennessee and run the business for about a year before having an option to purchase the company.

One of the driving forces behind Lee’s willingness to sell the company to me was that he wanted to protect the employees who were part of his work family. He was afraid that if a large company purchased his business, many of “his” people would lose their jobs. Selling to someone who would step into his role and preserve the employees’ jobs was important to him. Lee was a man of loyalty.

As you can imagine, picking up my family of five and moving to Tennessee based on a three-page letter and a promise to own the company was no small decision. But it was made much easier by my knowledge of the man I had known for more than a decade. I trusted that Lee would be good to his word because that was the type of person he was, and it turned out that my faith in him was well-placed. Lee was a man of integrity.

I acquired Lee’s company in January 2005, but our relationship didn’t end there. Lee remained active in the business on a daily basis for more than a year after he had sold it to me. He came to the office each day and supported me as I tried to fill his very big shoes. Lee had his ideas and opinions, but he somehow was able to successfully navigate his new role as board member and adviser, giving me enough room to put my own stamp on the company he had built. Lee was an entrepreneur and a wise counselor.

Earlier this year we invited Lee out to a company lunch event to tell his story of founding the business and how it evolved over the years. Many of the people in the room had been hired long after Lee was no longer involved in the business, but there was a significant group that had worked for Lee and continued to admire him. We were able to get a picture taken with all those people who had worked for Lee and were still contributing to the business he had built. Lee hired really good people.

I was lucky to know Lee Smith. I was lucky that he entrusted me with the business he had built and the people he cared so much about. And I was lucky to call Lee my friend and adviser. I’m going to miss him.

To read more about Lee Smith by longtime friend and colleague John Phillips, click here.