Meet Reese Smith! Reese and his wife Emily live in Hall County with their son Tate. Reese is an outside sales representative with United Rentals. He has lived in Hall County since his dad moved his family to the area about 21 years ago. Reese is heavily involved in Lakewood Baptist youth ministries and over the past year has become a referee for GHSA.

Q: Please tell us about your current career. What do you love most about what you do?

A: “I’ve always just enjoyed talking to people and meeting different people and I’ve enjoyed being outside and doing different things outside. This is kind of a career path that I’m able to incorporate both of those things. It’s been a career for me so far.”

Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in our community?

A: “This wasn’t necessarily job related, but I’m a member of Lakewood Baptist Church and Dr. Tom Smiley has always been an interesting guy to me, somebody that stood out to me, a leader in the community and a leader in the church and somebody that I’ve really looked up to and enjoyed getting to know and talk with on a pretty regular basis.”

Q: What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in our community?

A: “My wife and I, when we go out and do a little date night, we typically go to Recess. And if I’ve got a business meeting or ever taken some clients out to lunch, I’ll head over to Inked Pig usually.”

Q: Do you a have a favorite childhood memory in Hall County?

A: “I grew up in the Chestatee area. I went to Sardis Elementary, came up through Chestatee Middle School and Chestatee High School. And I’ve always been a big fan of that community, all the people that I met growing up there and the friendships that I developed while I was there. I really enjoyed my whole experience within that community.”

Q: What has been your favorite part of Hall County that’s led you to stay here?

A: “I think it’s just the people, this has been my home. We kind of bounced around a little bit early on in my childhood moving from South Georgia, then I lived in Texas for a few years, and then we moved here. Hall County  has a unique setting where you’re kind of an hour from the mountains, you’re an hour from Atlanta and you’re in the middle of the lake. And so you kind of get an environment in this area that you don’t get elsewhere.”

Q: What advice would you give to people?

A: “I would say, ‘get involved in something,’ that’s one thing that I’ve been grateful for in this area. There are a lot of opportunities to get involved in, to meet new people and to try new things.”

Q: What is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?

A: “I think most people don’t know that I’m a big music guy, I love music. I love going to concerts and I enjoy everything that goes along with that. But most people that know me know that I’m an extremely competitive person.”

Q: Do you remember your first concert?

A: “My first concert that I can really remember, I went to a Stephen Curtis Chapman concert and I believe was the Fox Theatre.”

Q: What is your favorite music or genre?

A: “I’ve got a pretty eclectic mix of music that I listened to. But I’m a big country guy. My wife and I, we just went to the Chris Stapleton’s concert and then before that we went to the Dave Matthews concert.”

Q: What current or former local business makes you the most nostalgic about our community?

A: “Everybody grows up eating at Longstreet Cafe. Every time I went off to college and I’d come back we’d have to go to Longstreet. Then there was always something about eating at The Collegiate as well. Also, since I grew up in Chestatee area, on Fridays we’d actually go to Reid’s.”

Q: If you could choose anyone that is alive today and not a relative; with whom would you love to have lunch? Why? And where locally would y’all meet for this lunch?

A: “I graduated from Georgia Southern University and there was a legendary coach, his name was Erk Russell, and I’ve always wanted to sit down and talk with him. I feel like he’d be an interesting character just to kind of pick his brain and learn from him a few of his ideas on leadership and team development.”

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?

A: “Being recently married, I’d like to continue to develop our family and have some more kids. I still see myself here in the Hall County area. I enjoy working with United and the company that I’m with. Maybe branch management within United or something along those lines and still coaching little league baseball and officiating and all that kind of stuff that I do now.”

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?

A: “My wife and I have always talked about wanting to do a Mediterranean cruise like of Greece and Italy and Spain.”

Q: What three words that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘HOME’?

A: “Family, community, and I have to think on the third one but I definitely think those are two hallmarks of home to me. I’ve always enjoy having a close family relationship and having a close relationship with my community.”