Buz Smith was born and raised in Paducah – proudly the sixth generation of Paducah City residents. Smith has lived in the city his entire life by choice enjoying the wonderful neighborhoods, quaintness of downtown and most importantly the people.  “Paducah is a great place to live, my wife, Janie, and I raised our children here– parks are within walking distance, outstanding school systems, convenient shopping and a great sense of community” stated Smith.

He attended the St. Mary School system, Paducah Community College and Western Kentucky University with studies concentrated in business.  After attending WKU Smith returned home and worked for twenty-three years at US Foodservice and its predecessor companies on North 10th Street. There he served as the sales manager running the business segment for chain restaurants, hospitals, and healthcare, managing a sales budget much greater than the city of Paducah’s annual revenues.

For the last thirteen years Smith has worked for the Department of Energy at the gaseous diffusion plant as a strategic planner and program analyst.

Buz previously served on the Paducah City Commission for 6 terms.   Two of those terms he had the privilege to serve as Mayor Pro-tem.  “I absolutely enjoyed every minute of the challenges of serving as well as the sense of accomplishment from the successes, such as the Lowertown and Fountain Avenue projects, the Carson center, rebirth of downtown and many others” said Smith “and I look forward to serving the residents of the City of Paducah again.”