Tommy Smith

News Obituary Article

DULUTH: Tommy Smith, boon to transplant patients

By KAY POWELL

Tommy Smith lost a kidney and found a cause.

Mr. Smith lost his left kidney in 1968 while he was in the Marine Corps. His right kidney began deteriorating shortly afterward, leading to a transplant in 1988.

The Vietnam veteran established the Georgia Transplant Foundation in 1992. He pulled in big names for the board of directors and raised big money, enough for the foundation to assist 5,000 Georgia transplant patients.

Today, his foundation has raised millions of dollars, is guided by a 25-member board, and has a staff of nine and hundreds of volunteers, said deputy director Pat Sortor of Alpharetta.

The funeral for Mr. Smith, 56, of Duluth, who died of pneumonia and multiple organ failure Sunday at Piedmont Hospital, is 2 p.m. Wednesday at H.M. Patterson & Son, Oglethorpe Hill.

After his kidney transplant, Mr. Smith kept working at the family business, Old Sarge Army Navy Surplus Store on Buford Highway, and began volunteering 10 to 20 hours a week with the National Kidney Foundation of Georgia.

He passed out business cards that read: "Have Transplant, Will Travel." Travel, he did. He visited dialysis centers in metro Atlanta and throughout Georgia as vice president of the Kidney Foundation's patient services committee.

He assisted patients who didn't know what resources were available to them, saw people lose their homes because of their medical expenses, and, most tragically, saw people die who couldn't afford to maintain their transplants, said Ms. Sortor.

That made him determined to start a foundation so that money raised in Georgia would be spent on Georgia transplant patients, she said.

Through a neighbor of former Atlanta Braves pitcher Tom Glavine, Mr. Smith put a note in his mailbox asking if he would be interested in helping the foundation.

Mr. Glavine became a board member and has raised $2.5 million for the foundation, said Ms. Sortor.

Mr. Glavine, now a pitcher with the New York Mets and an honorary foundation board member, said Mr. Smith's passion persuaded him to support the foundation, according to a 2000 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

When Mr. Smith bought a Brayson Homes house in 1994, his real estate agent introduced him to the company's founder, Sonny Deavours, who had a kidney transplant in 1992. They came up with the idea of an annual transplant house fund-raiser.

A house is built by Brayson Homes, with much material and labor donated, then sold with profits going to the foundation.

Mr. Smith ran the Army Navy store until 1993, said his brother-in-law Jim Crissey of Fayetteville. As his health declined, Mr. Smith made the foundation his full-time work.

Survivors include a daughter, Pamela Y. Smith of Braselton; a son, Robert K. Smith of Duluth; his mother, Isolde B. Smith of Alpharetta; a sister, Timber Crissey of Fayetteville; and a granddaughter.

© 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution