Dink NeSmith

In 1958, Dink NeSmith was 10 years old and active in the newspaper business. When the 3 o'clock bell rang at Orange Street Elementary School, he would jump on his bike and race seven blocks to the back door of The Jesup Sentinel. There he would buy a stack of the weekly newspapers for a nickel each. Pedaling as fast as he could, he rushed to meet the shift change at the Sea Island Shirt Factory on Cherry Street. As the ladies left work, he turned his nickels into dimes before the ink dried on the latest edition of the local news.

Fourteen years later, he borrowed $3,000 to make a down payment on a one-third interest in Jesup's competing newspaper, the upstart Wayne County Press. Four years later, he joined Community Newspapers, Inc. in the purchase and consolidation of the two papers to form the twice-weekly, The Press-Sentinel.

Today, NeSmith, 57, is co-owner and president of Athens-based Community Newspapers, Inc., publisher of several dozen newspapers in Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas. In 2000, CNI acquired four Florida newspapers, three from the New York Times Company - The Fernandina Beach News-Leader, The Palatka Daily News, The Lake City Daily Reporter.

A 1970 graduate of The University of Georgia, NeSmith is past president of the Georgia Press Association and former chairman of Leadership Georgia (1986). He is an emeritus member of The University of Georgia's Athletic Association's board of directors and The University of Georgia Foundation's Board of Trustees.

He has also served as president of the Journalism College's Alumni Association and the chairman of the college's advisory board. Currently, he is chairman of UGA's J.W. Fanning Leadership Institute and recently co-authored a biography of its founder, Dr. Fanning. He is past president of The University of Georgia's National Alumni Association and a director of the Richard B. Russell Foundation.

He has served as vice-chairman of communications for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce; chairman of the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission and a member of the state's Judicial Qualifications Commission. Gov. Sonny Perdue recently appointed him to the 20-member Commission for a New Georgia. He serves on the board of directors of Athens First Bank and Trust, Southern Mutual Insurance Company and Pattillo Construction Company.

During the summer of 1996, Athens was the largest Olympic venue outside of Atlanta. NeSmith served four years as chairman of Athens 96, which coordinated the community's involvement in soccer, volleyball and rhythmic gymnastics events.

In his spare time, he enjoys digging in the dirt on the NeSmith's Lake Hartwell farm where he is learning to perfect his plowing skills with a matched pair of mules, Ruby and Rose.

Dink and his wife, Pam, met as students while at The University of Georgia. Pam is co-owner and developer of The Bottleworks on Prince Avenue. She and her partner transformed the old Coca-Cola bottling plant into Athens' first mixed-use complex which included seven buildings. The project won the 2002 award for rehabilitation excellence from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. The NeSmiths have three children: Alan, 33, Emily, 30, and Eric, 27.