History

On October 22, 1967, Tom Seckman had one of those transformative experiences that usually happens once in a lifetime. While sitting in church, Tom realized that it was time to leave his current employer to pursue a new engineering venture. It turns out he wasn’t alone.  Tom would soon discover fellow associates, Andy Reid, Lester Smith, and Bobby Smith, felt the same way. Following their mutual resignations, the four men gathered around Tom’s dining room table on a Saturday in January, 1968. They drafted, as Tom’s handwritten diary describes it, their company “magna carta.” The four founders agreed to raise $39,000, in capital, to begin their new venture. Each put in his share with a substantial loan from Tom’s brother, Randy. There were sixteen different tenets the four founders agreed on that blustery morning. The last of them was the firm’s name: Smith Seckman Reid, Inc. Not long after that initial meeting, Tom, Bobby, and Andy toured what would become SSR’s first home at 2121 Belcourt Avenue in Nashville, Tennessee. They leased 800 SF on the second floor. Smith Seckman Reid officially opened for business on February 1, 1968.