Sell the Company for $400 Million? He’s Giving It Away Instead.

Back in 1968, Eddie Smith Jr. bought a fledgling boat maker based in Greenville, N.C. It was a risky move. The company, Grady-White Boats, was in trouble.

But Mr. Smith turned it around, and now the maker of high-end recreational fishing boats designed for coastal waters pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. Along the way, Mr. Smith kept full control of the company, never taking on outside investors or selling stock to the public.

Now, Mr. Smith, who is 83, has made one last big move: He renounced a potential $400 million payday and pledged all of Grady-White’s future profits to charity.

“God has really blessed me to put me in a position to give away the vast majority of my net worth,” he said in an interview. “I don’t need a 200-foot yacht or to spend the winters in the Mediterranean. I’m really happy here in eastern North Carolina.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/25/business/grady-white-boats-charity.html