3/30/2015
In Memoriam: Frank Smith
Chris Beytes
Tom Smith, owner of Four Star Greenhouses, sent
GrowerTalks a note that his dear old dad, Frank, passed away at the age of 94. Tom said his dad came in every day, just to be among the plants and the action. It was in his blood.
Born in Detroit in 1920, Frank got his start in agriculture selling vegetables from the family garden door-to-door. At 20, he and the family started a farming business that eventually grew to 1,000 acres.
He and Tom launched Smith Greenhouses in 1977, growing seed annuals. It was after getting into plugs that Tom and his wife, Sharon, took over the business and renamed it Four Star Greenhouses and grew it into a nationally recognized operation. Although in his email, Tom gives credit to his dad: “Without Frank, there would have been no Four Star. His financing of our first building and our first products, and his belief in an unproven 18-year-old with no business experience and no formal greenhouse education is the very definition of faith.”
Frank is survived by his wife, Mary Lou; children Larry, Patty Smith Rogers, and Tom; three grandchildren and four step-grandchildren.
GT