Baking & Snack - February 2020 - 29

2020 BAKING HALL OF FAME

Gordon Smith's leadership and founding
of ATBI unified the baking industry.
by Charlotte Atchley

Illustration by Brent Engstrom

Those in the baking industry know it's a fraternal
group. The competition can be intense, but when bakers need help, they support one another. While this
pervasive atmosphere could not be attributed to a
single individual, Gordon Smith, founder of Smith's
Bakeries, Mobile, AL, certainly embodied it and helped
cement that spirit of helpfulness into all aspects of
the baking industry through his strength of character
and the founding of the Allied Trades of the Baking
Industry (ATBI).
"Building relationship is the core value in the baking
industry, and I learned the importance of developing
and sustaining relationships under the direct leadership of Gordon Smith," said Steve Cooper, president
and CEO of Schwebel Baking Co., Youngstown, OH,
in his letter of recommendation to ASB. "This is the
legacy that he left at Smith's Bakery."
According to his company's history, Mr. Smith arrived in Mobile, AL, from his native New Orleans with
only 80 cents in his pocket and a job to help a family
friend's grocery and bakery business. Trained by his father in the baking trade, Mr. Smith bought the bakery side of R.O. Harris Grocery in 1900 and launched
Smith's Bakeries. The business grew to encompass five
bakeries throughout the Gulf states by 1948. Mr. Smith
died Sept. 10, 1964, while still active chairman of Smith's
Bakeries. The company remained family-owned until
1989 when it was acquired and became the foundation
for CooperSmith Inc. It is currently operated by Bimbo
Bakeries USA, Horsham, PA.
In his 64 years at Smith's Bakeries, Mr. Smith was
on the cutting edge of technology and policy. Smith's
Bakeries was an early producer of sliced, wrapped bread
in the 1920s. The company was one of the first to enrich
bread with vitamins and minerals. When hygienic operating regulations were enacted in Alabama, the business
was the first to apply for a permit. And Smith's Bakeries
also created a pension profit sharing trust for its employees in 1943 and had already been providing life insurance
protection.
In 1918, at the Southeastern Association of the Baking

Industry, Mr. Smith focused his keynote address on the
baking challenge of the day: reducing wheat flour by
25% in accordance with the new Food Administration's
plea to help the war effort. The baking industry found
this difficult to comply with, but Mr. Smith advocated
that bakers must work together to figure it out.
"If there is any baker who is having trouble making
war bread, he should help him out - by mail, if possible; if not, then he should go to him or send a captain
to him so that all may bake Victory bread that will really
be worth of the name," he preached. "That's the spirit of
the whole proposition - the spirit of helpfulness."
It was this same spirit that spurred Mr. Smith to create ATBI 100 years ago. At a time when the baking industry was fractured and competition was
cutthroat, he saw the benefit of the "cooperation of
strength" between suppliers and bakers.
"Gordon Smith's contribution to the baking industry was to recognize that the
relationship between supplier and
customer must benefit both, that
mutual respect and professionalism is paramount," said William
McCurry, a past officer of ATBI.
His priority of helping
others extended beyond the
baking industry to his local community as well. "He
was a dynamo in the Mobile
community," said Jane
Burton, Mr. Smith's
granddaughter. "He was
always the most generous
person. He was very involved
in philanthropy and was wellknown for it.
As an industry and community
leader, Mr. Smith left a lasting legacy
of hard work, innovation and supporting
the industry and its people, one that reverberates today.

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