Retired Cardiologist Now Helping Blacks Build Wealth, Improve Health

A  medical care trailblazer and retired cardiologist, Dr. Henry W. B. “Hank” Smith III, is renowned for helping save the lives of people for nearly four decades.

Now, Smith is making another large contribution in assisting the Black community with building wealth and realizing other positive outcomes like enhancing health.

One of the first Black American cardiologists in Greensboro, North Carolina, Smith hung up his stethoscopes this past January. He had a  practice for 39 years,  retiring from Cone Health HeartCare. He told BLACK ENTERPRISE that he is spending his days encouraging collective giving to make the Black Investments in Greensboro (BIG) Equity Fund stronger financially.

MAKING AN IMPACT IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY WITH FUNDING

A Black-led permanent endowment at the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, the fund was founded by Mae Douglas, Smith, and 10 other Black community leaders in 2019. They serve on its steering committee. Today it is worth $1.5 million, and the fund’s mission is to improve education, health, and economic conditions in Greensboro and Guilford County in North Carolina.

“Grants are made to fund programs and alliances that accomplish these goals.”

Demonstrating his support, Smith shared he and his wife, Cheryl, contributed around $110,000 to the fund and continue to give yearly. The Smiths live in Greensboro.

The first grant of $50,000 was made last year as the fund grew to provide short-term capital for Black contractors to buy surety bonding to allow bids for work projects. Smith says a second grant – likely for $100,000 –  will be made later this year or early 2025 to support apprentice programs for Black and underserved high school students. Learn more about the fund here.

AIMING TO DERAIL SYSTEMIC BARRIERS AND DISPARITY

As the fund grows, the extra capital will be aimed at boosting the well-being status for its recipients. With collective philanthropy, he says the fund’s growth is dependent upon continued contributions and market appreciation. “The grants will be upstream investments to remove systemic barriers that cause and perpetuate Black socioeconomic disparity.”

However, Smith’s desire to give back did not come easy. He developed a love for interventional cardiology after graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1978 and Morehouse College in 1974.

BECOMING A TOP CARDIOLOGIST AFTER CONQUERING OBSTACLES

He gravitated toward cardiology because of the high incidence of cardiovascular disease in America, specifically among African Americans. Smith says Morehouse repaired his low self-esteem and helped him understand that a career in medicine was possible.

He recalls there were no Black physicians in Statesboro, Georgia, where he grew up, and only a few white doctors seeing Blacks. He noted Blacks had to enter the office through the back door after all white patients were seen. “There were no role models. I did not consider medicine until after entering Morehouse and being nurtured by the HBCU environment, faculty, and  fellow students.”

On the pioneering front, Smith was an early adopter of using balloon and stent procedures for stopping heart attacks. He says “balloon angioplasty” was unproven when he first became a cardiologist but has evolved to become the treatment of choice for heart attacks and remains so today.

Further, Smith shared all his heart attack cases during the early years were tough because the equipment was primitive. However, he says things improved significantly during the late 1980s and early 1990s. “There are still improvements being made today, including doing most of the cases.

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