Dean, School of Biblical Studies
Billy R. Smith also serves as a minister for the Estes Church of Christ in Henderson, Tennessee.
A native of Woodbury, Tennessee, Smith is a graduate of Freed-Hardeman (A.A., 1970), David Lipscomb University (B.A., 1972), and Harding University Graduate School of Religion (M.A., 1976, M.Th., 1986, D.Min., 1990).
He is in his thirty-fifth year of service with FHU. In 1996 he was selected as a Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies. He has been appointed to the E. Claude and Delorese Gardner Chair of Excellence in Biblical Studies.
In addition to his teaching duties at Freed-Hardeman, Smith sponsors the Preachers' Club, directs Horizons (Future Church Leaders Workshop) each July on the FHU campus, and serves on the Annual Bible Lectureship committee.
His wife of thirty-seven years, Joan, is a teacher at Chester County Middle School in Henderson. They have two children, Scotty (wife, Ginger), an English teacher and soccer coach at Southhaven High School (MS) and Monica, who with her husband, Brad Schultz, are elementary teachers at Greater Atlanta Christian School (GA). They have one granddaughter, Sydney Caroline Smith.