Keeping the business alive meant long hours at work and months of uncertainty for Smith and his managers.
Some days, Hal Perry, whom Smith had brought in to develop a marketing strategy for the subdivision in east Raleigh, went home well after midnight.
"I'd be back at 6:30 or 7 (in the morning) and Fred would be there with his second or third cup of coffee," Perry said. "Fred had worked all night."
Smith has spent his life as a pre-dawn to midnight worker and master juggler -- taking classes in tax law while serving as an Army lawyer, managing a farm while practicing law, and serving in the state Senate while launching a campaign for governor.
Smith says he took to heart a lesson from one of his Wake Forest law professors: The lawyer who wins in court isn't the most eloquent. It's the lawyer who has done his homework.
"Once you have a vision, it really gets down to work and perseverance," Smith said. "Just to talk about a plan or just to talk about a vision doesn't really get it done. It's doing it. It's hard work."
Hard work hasn't necessarily meant success in politics, however. Smith, a three-term Republican state senator, has enjoyed few victories in the legislature, where his most far-reaching proposals have been sent to die in committees.
That has left the Johnston County Republican to run hard on his biography, figuring his life story and varied experiences will win votes in the May 6 primary.
Smith kept the Hedingham development, a subdivision in east Raleigh, from going into bankruptcy and went on to build other homes and athletic clubs in Wake and Johnston counties. A multimillionaire, Smith had pumped nearly $2 million of his own money into his campaign by the end of last year. That is almost three times more than his campaign has received in contributions from other people.
Politics and 'cue
So far, it's been an unconventional run. He has hosted barbecues in all 100 counties. He's traveling the state with country singer Lee Greenwood, wrapping political talk around an hourlong performance. And he wrote and published a biography that he mailed to potential voters, and gives away and autographs at campaign stops. He said he has spent $40,000 a week on television ads for the past two months and plans to do more.
Smith's three oldest children said they discouraged him from writing the book, called "A Little Extra Effort." They didn't think anyone would be interested.
The father kept turning out chapters even as the children shook their heads, but they now agree that he was right.
One chapter tells of his first wife's mental illness, their divorce and her suicide.
Smith said he spent years worrying about his first wife's erratic behavior and visiting her in hospitals. When they separated, he won custody of their four children.
"I did all I could do," he said. "I did more than my share, but I had four children to take care of."
Smith remarried and had another child with his second wife.
Smith said he wrote the book to "paint his own barn," to tell others about himself before someone else defined him. "When you run a statewide race, there's nothing about your life that's not going to come up," he said. "I just wanted to tell my story."
'Losers don't smile'
That story starts with Smith spending his early childhood living at the Methodist Orphanage in Raleigh, where his parents worked.
Smith played football and baseball at Broughton High School and won a football scholarship to Wake Forest College.
A news article about Smith accepting "most outstanding" honors at the 1959 Shrine Bowl, which his team lost, highlighted his refusal to smile for a photographer. "The losers don't smile," The Charlotte Observer quoted Smith saying.
He gave up football after two years, realizing he was too small. He worked and joined the Army ROTC to pay school bills.
Smith graduated from Wake Forest law school and worked as an Army lawyer in Virginia and Arkansas. He returned to North Carolina in 1970 to practice law.
Smith had goals, said Marjorie Lynch, who in the mid-1980s went to work for a law firm that Smith helped found, Smith Debnam Hibbert & Pahl.
Collecting debts
Smith's specialty was representing companies trying to collect debts from other companies. He became president of the Commercial Law League of America, an association of commercial creditors and bankruptcy lawyers.
He was always interested in infusing new management techniques, Lynch said, engaging associates' interest in the firm's financial success. All lawyers had computers at their desks, she said, a rarity for the times.
One of Smith's favorite sayings, she said, was that the copy machine was the best associate he could ever have because it worked all day, "didn't complain and always charged people the right amount."
A broader outlook
With his campaign for governor, Smith is looking to advance in an arena where his success has been largely limited to overwhelming wins in his strong Republican state Senate district, which includes Johnston and part of Wayne counties.
In the legislature, Smith has a championed changes to the state constitution that would limit state budget increases, ban same-sex marriage, and limit use of eminent domain.
None has come up for Senate votes, not even in committees. But then Smith is hardly the only Republican to have difficulty in a chamber dominated by Democrats.
Smith said he would stand a much better chance of getting what he wants out of the legislature, even if it is controlled by Democrats, using his negotiation skills and the governor's veto power. He promises to be an engaged leader. He would be a contrast, he said, to Gov. Mike Easley, whom he chides as a distant, absentee governor.
"North Carolina needs a chief executive who understands the first, simple rule of leadership: show up," Smith wrote in his book.
In the state Senate
Smith took heat, though, for failing to show up for legislative sessions to attend campaign events. He missed more than 300 votes last year, more than any other senator. Smith said his votes would not have changed the outcome on any bill, and he was ready to come to Raleigh to vote if necessary.
Sen. Phil Berger, the Republican minority leader from Eden, said the Senate atmosphere limits GOP initiatives, but Smith was persuasive and thoughtful in meetings with Republican colleagues.
"It struck me he was constantly trying to find people who were offering different alternatives," Berger said. "He wanted us to look at what are the choices that are in front of us -- what are the alternative options that are available."
Smith has been a reliable vote against state budgets, but Republicans haven't always rallied around Smith's budget positions. After one of his critical budget speeches in 2006, six Senate Republicans joined the Democratic majority and voted for it.
Smith calls his campaign a conversation with voters. He speaks to audiences about the importance of fiscal restraint, private property rights, and limits on how much patients can collect for pain and suffering in medical malpractice lawsuits.
After an appearance in Burlington with Greenwood last week, people lined up for both men's autographs.
"You need to go out and tell people who you are, what you stand for, so they can make a good choice," Smith said.
