Scott Smith, Always On Alert

Scott Smith, the mild-mannered, 39-year-old vice president of First Community Bank in Clinton, may arrive at the office wearing a tie, but he often leaves changing into his fire helmet and other emergency gear.

A member of Hickman-Fulton Counties RECC, Smith holds a degree in finance from Murray State University and served as Hickman County’s director of emergency management for three years before joining the bank in 1997. Since then, he has continued to serve without pay as assistant director of emergency management and as a volunteer with the Clinton Fire Department and as assistant chief of the Hickman County Fire and Rescue.

Smith has the green light from the bank’s board of directors to respond to daily emergencies, and during last year’s ice storm he served as incident command officer for 17 days straight.

“My president, Bruce Kimbell, said, ‘Do what you need to do for the county,’” Smith recalls.

And in early May, numerous people reported that had they not been awakened by Smith’s recorded telephone warning on the night a tornado struck, they wouldn’t have known of the approaching twister. It touched down along an 8-mile stretch of Hickman County, but caused no injuries.

Greg Pruitt, Hickman County judge executive, characterizes Smith’s leadership and his many hours of volunteer service to his native county as exceptional.

During the 2009 ice storm, “I’m sure there were many good incident command officers across the state—but there was not one any better anywhere than Scott Smith,” Pruitt says.

Smith is now taking emergency medical responder training for certification to assist paramedics and emergency medical technicians on ambulance runs.

“It’s hard to explain, unless it’s something that you’ve ever done, but once you’re involved in emergency services, it becomes a part of you, I guess,” Smith says. “It makes you feel good to be able to help people.”

He also serves on the boards of the local health department, a nursing home, and his church in nearby Fulton.

“In my opinion, he is one of the finest young men in Hickman County,” says Lula Belle Puckett, director of the mission house for the local ministerial alliance.

Smith was named Hickman County’s Citizen of the Year in 2009.