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Dallas-Ft. Worth Developer Named Chair of Home Builders Institute Board

Patsy Ruth Smith, president and CEO of Herman Smith & Co., has been named 2005 chairman of the board of trustees of the Home Builders Institute (HBI), the workforce development arm of NAHB.

She was married for 44 years to the late Herman Smith, a former NAHB president and prominent land developer and philanthropist, and took control of the company upon his death, successfully completing a 240,000-square-foot major shopping center and focusing on the company's business of developing and selling lots in Dallas-Fort Worth.

An HBI trustee for the past nine years, Smith is well acquainted with the institute’s workforce development initiatives and resources. A strong advocate for HBI’s youth training efforts such as Project CRAFT and its 30-year partnership with Job Corps, Smith pledged to continue the work begun by her predecessor, James Sattler, a builder from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

“We would like all of our NAHB membership to become familiar with our programs, the careers we help start every day and the thousands of young people who place their trust on our industry to succeed,” said Smith. “We need to educate our members about HBI and the significance of what we do to support the nation’s home building industry.”

Smith continues to serve on the NAHB Executive Board after several years as a presidential appointee. She also serves on the National Housing Board of Governors, is a lifetime trustee of the National Housing Endowment and is a national and local director of the Greater Fort Worth Builders Association.

Among her many volunteer activities, she is on the Endowment Board of Baylor University, a trustee of Dallas Baptist University and past president of Women's Haven, an institution for battered and abused women. She has been recognized by her local press as one of the county’s most influential business women.

For more information about the Home Builders Institute, e-mail Maria McIntyre, or call her at 800-795-7955 x8912.

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