James Smith

About Me: • Hometown: Athens, GA • Married, 3 children, 9 grandchildren • Received a Bronze Star, a Combat Infantry Badge, and an Army Commendation Award for his service in Vietnam • Speaks fluent Spanish • An avid light tackle salt water fisherman • Favorite way to spend a weekend is shrimping at the back side of Blackbeard Island or fishing in Christmas Creek on Cumberland Island with his wife, Peggy. • Motto: I think I can. If you ask James R. (J. R.) Smith what he’s best known for professionally, his answer is one of strength and faith, yet clothed in modesty: “No special stars by my name – maybe an asterisk (*),” he says. “Beside the asterisk, at the bottom of the page it would read: ‘For being a person that in the face of disaster or imminent failure does not give up; a person who will keep on trying, and if there is a way, he will more than likely find it.’ ”