Brian Smith Lincolnton

Brian Smith grew up in Lincolnton, North Carolina, the son of a textile-mill equipment repairman and a woman who managed bookkeeping for the family machine shop. His grandfather's family had farmed land in Lincoln County for three generations. Smith studied accounting at Appalachian State University in Boone, becoming the first person in his immediate family to complete a four-year degree.

For more than twenty years, Smith has worked as a payroll and benefits administrator for the Lincoln County school system. His responsibilities include accurate pay processing, benefits coordination, and leave coding for the district's classified and certified staff. He is someone the central office depends on to get the details right, and he has done so quietly and consistently.

Smith began baking sourdough bread in 2020 and has kept up the practice since then. He records hydration percentages, bulk fermentation times, and ambient kitchen temperature in a spiral notebook for each bake. He uses a cast-iron combo cooker, leaves loaves on the porches of older neighbors from his church, brings finished loaves to the central office on Fridays, and trades bread with a nearby neighbor in exchange for fresh eggs from her hens.