Liz Welch | Inc. magazine

Harry Smith, the Mayor of Greenwood

 

"I have been mayor since 1993. Before that, I ran my wife's family's department store, De Loaches, which closed in 1995. De Loaches had a fur department. In fact, my first few years as mayor, ladies would barge into my office, throw down a few coats, and say, 'I need an appraisal for my insurance statement!' Now, Giardina's is in the old De Loaches building, so if you go there for dinner, you might be eating in lingerie. Greenwood is becoming what it once was, thanks to Viking. After NAFTA, we lost so many manufacturers. When Detroit loses 2,000 jobs, it's a bump. For Greenwood, with a population of 18,000, it was a catastrophe. Fred started expanding Viking as other companies were fleeing. And that made all the difference."

Liz Welch is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist who has written for The New York Times, Real Simple, Glamour, and Inc., among other publications. She is the co-author with her siblings of the recent book The Kids Are All Right, a highly-regarded memoir of her childhood. @lizmwelch