Born: 10/18/1930
Married: Vondie Tarpley, 1962
Mr. Dan Smith has lived and farmed in Wilson County all his life. In 1942, after the bottomland of the farm where he was born was taken by the construction of Old Hickory Dam on the Cumberland River, the Smith family moved to a farm in the Greenwood community, a few miles southeast of Lebanon. Smith continues to farm there, raising beef cattle — primarily Angus — along with hay and permanent pasture on 360 acres. He was once among Wilson County’s leading burley tobacco producers and at one time raised Tennessee walking horses.
Smith bought stock in Wilson Farmers Cooperative, which was chartered on Nov. 22, 1949, when it was organized and was among its first customers when it opened for business in January 1950. In 1953, at age 22, Smith was elected to Wilson Farmers Co-op’s board of directors. Obviously recognizing and appreciating the young farmer’s leadership abilities, Wilson Farmers Co-op members elected him to their board numerous times thereafter — enough times, in fact, for him to rack up 42 years of service. He held each of the board’s various offices — president, vice president, and secretary — several times through the years.
Co-op farmer-members from across the state took notice of the Wilson Countian’s leadership, too, and elected Smith to Tennessee Farmers Cooperative’s board in 1972, launching his productive and eventful nine-year tenure as a TFC director. He is one of the few directors to serve two terms as chairman of TFC’s board, holding the top position in both 1977 and ’81. In 2007, Mr. Dan received the Cooperative Spirit Award from TFC. The Cooperative Spirit Award is given to an individual who, through a special love and devotion, helps further the cause of cooperatives and provides strength and stability to the Cooperative Farm Supply System in Tennessee.
Member-owners of rural electric cooperatives across the state and nation have also been well served by Smith, a valued member of the board of Murfreesboro-based Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation — one of the nation’s largest electric co-ops — since 1971. Nationally, he has served for 22 years as sergeant at arms of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s annual meeting and is now chief sergeant.
Smith was a pioneer in youth and young farmers’ activities in Tennessee. As an FFA member in 1949, he received that organization’s highest distinction, the American Farmer Degree. He was a charter member and first president of Wilson County’s Young Farmers and Homemakers organization.
Mr. Dan Smith is the current president of the Wilson County Farm Bureau, a position he’s held for the last ten years, and has been on its board for over 40 years. He served a three year term on an advisory committee for Co-Bank in Louisville, KY. He and his wife were awarded a Life Time Membership in the Wilson County Livestock Association. In addition, he served on the USDA ASCS County Board for several years.
Smith and his wife, Vondie, were married in 1962 and are active members of Highland Heights Church of Christ in Lebanon. Mrs. Smith was in the banking business for over 50 years and retired as a vice president of Lebanon’s Bank of the South in 2008.
