I AM WILSHIRE - GUY SMITH

Family Mission

Guy Smith and his wife, Connie, went on their first mission trip in the 1990s, a trip to Russia led by Preston Bright.

“That put the desire in us, and every year since then we’ve done a mission trip,” he said.

This summer marked the Smiths’ seventh year as volunteers with Amazon Outreach. “The Amazon trip was the first with our entire family,” he said. “That’s why we’re continually drawn back to it.”

Working through two churches in Brazil, the group provides basic services to people in isolated villages along the Amazon River. There is always a dental and medical team and a Vacation Bible School.

“The boys have developed a soccer ministry,” Guy said, and in the evening there are soccer games and a service to share the gospel.

He previously has done basic eye exams, but this year he is co-leading the group of 32 volunteers, plus interpreters and a pastor. “I’m the packing captain, and I’ll do a children’s magic show and balloon art,” he said.

Guy grew up in Fort Worth and graduated from Carter-Riverside High School. In 1971, he followed his sister and brother to Baylor University. An admitted sports fanatic, he was involved in intramural sports of every kind, even bowling and badminton.

He majored in political science and after three years had met the requirements to enter Baylor Law School, He met his wife, Connie, in a class during their first week on campus. “She was wearing her freshman beanie and introduced herself to me,” he recalled.

When they were married in 1975, she had just finished dental hygiene school, and for the next two years she worked as a hygienist and he clerked at a Waco law firm. During that time, they were caretakers for the Earle Napier Kinnard House, a historic home in Waco. They lived there rent-free in exchange for opening it for weekend tours.

By the time Guy graduated in 1977, Connie had decided to enter dental school. That meant he would begin his law career in Dallas.

For the next 11 years, he worked for a small law firm, the last six as a partner. In 1988, he became a solo practitioner specializing in civil litigation, including personal injury, business, consumer and real estate law.

“The primary reason for leaving my firm was our kids,” Guy said. “I wanted to be at their activities, and my new boss (me) permitted me such latitude. It required a lot of returning to work later at night, but that was an acceptable tradeoff. It also permitted Connie and me to office in the same building.”

He enjoys being able to help people who really need help, and as his own boss he “can help people on my own terms and do pro bono work if I want to,” he said. “I don’t have to answer to anyone else.”

Since 2005, he has taught business law and ethics classes at Texas Woman’s University. “I enjoy the interaction with students and have designed the course to be a practical learning experience,” he said. The class covers “everything from traffic tickets and contracts to sexual harassment.”

When the Smiths moved to Dallas, they visited Wilshire and several other churches.

“The afternoon of our first visit, I was in the yard with no shirt on, and someone from Wilshire came to see us,” he recalled. “When he left, he said he was Bruce McIver!” Smith hadn’t recognized him, but he said to himself, “I gotta go to this guy’s church.”

Not long after the Smiths joined, Neal Jeffrey became Wilshire’s youth minister. Guy had known him in Fort Worth and saw him occasionally at Baylor. They became very close, and the Smiths became active in Wilshire’s youth ministry, including helping with youth camps and ski trips.

Guy and Connie have raised their four children at Wilshire—Cable, Jansen, Kendal and Chris.

The Smiths now are active members of Whosoever Wilshire Class. Guy is a deacon and has served on several committees.

Over the years, he has sung in an adult ensemble and the Sanctuary Choir, and the entire family, including their three sons and one daughter, participated in one of the summer Broadway productions organized by former ministers of music Bill James and Bob Brooks.