Lamar Smitherman serves as Outreach and Industry Relations Coordinator for NCSSM-Morganton. Lamar retired after spending some 40 years in the newspaper business, most recently as publisher of the Morganton News Herald and the McDowell News. Prior to arriving in North Carolina, he served as publisher of five community newspapers, two military publications and also as a director of the Montgomery Advertiser, Alabama’s capital city newspaper. He is currently a board member of Burke Development Incorporated and a trustee at Western Piedmont Community College. He is a past board member of the Burke County Chamber of Commerce, Blue Ridge Health Care Foundation and Burke United Way. He and Barbara relocated to Morganton from Alabama and have four sons: Mark, Todd, Brad, and Blake.