By Fred Seely
Editor
Chester Stokes first saw Hawley Smith when he walked through the door of the Sigma Nu house at Georgia Tech. It was the fall of 1964. Stokes was a senior and his assignment was to rush the incoming freshman.
He did, and they became close friends. Just like they are today.
“He’s my best friend,” said Stokes. And Smith, sitting five feet away, followed with the same sentence: “He’s my best friend.”
They are two powerhouses in North Florida construction and have been since the early 70’s when they came to Jacksonville to work for companies owned by other people. Today, each owns his own company and both exert significant influence on how this area operates.
Stokes is the more visible as he has scratched his itch for golf by starting some of the area’s top golf developments up and down the coast such as Marsh Landing, Summer Beach and Marsh Creek. Smith has built his empire with more traditional housing developments over the year before putting together Palencia, his signature development.
“We had the good fortune to get here when the Jacksonville area was emerging,” said Smith. “It was the right time. We both had jobs that gave us good contacts so, when we went out on our own, we had great opportunity.”
Both took advantage and, on a chilly day last month, they took refuge in the Marsh Landing clubhouse to reminisce. They know each other so well that they give almost identical answers to the same question. Each seems to know what the other is thinking.
They are often together. Their families go out together, they give parties for each other’s children and, on Tuesdays, they gather with other pals for card games. They have houses a half-mile apart at a Western resort.
All this started at Georgia Tech back in the late 1960’s, a senior and a freshman who bonded for life. When the road led to Jacksonville for one, the other followed.
“I was from Blakely, a small Georgia town, and had only occasionally been to Jacksonville,” said Stokes. “My senior year, Gil Pomar came to campus to recruit and hired me.”
Pomar, now better known as the father of the Jacksonville Bank president with the same name, was vice president of the big Houdaille-Duval-Wright construction materials and road and bridge building company.
“We set up a training program and interviewed in engineering schools,” said Pomar. “We hired four young men and did our job too well - all four had a great desire to get ahead, and all four left fairly soon and established their own companies.”
Stokes’ road led to then-giant Charter Co., where he was hired to run one of the development divisions.
“We got to know Chester and saw what a bulldog he was,” said Jim Winston, then Charter’s chief operating officer. ‘He was absolutely fearless with a great entreprenurial spirit.
“In fact, he was so aggressive that we sent him to Mel Reid, who ran a company that did psychological exams on people, to determine what kind of employee they would be. Mel told us, ‘You have your man, but don’t put a saddle on him. Let him do his thing and you’ll all succeed.”
That brought Smith to the area.
“I only came down here for football games,” said Smith. “I would stay with Chester and he hired me to work at Charter.”
In 1973, Stokes went on his own, forming Stokes and Co. Two years later, Smith did the same, starting the H. Smith Co.
They both became active in the local builders association and Smith became president of the Northeast Florida Builders Association president.
“Chester didn’t want to go through the chairs so he never was president, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have a lot of influence,” said Smith. “Many of the top people in this association worked for Chester, people like Joe Collins, Charles Atkerson, Denise Wallace, Ron Coppenbarger. We just put another on the road to be president: Barbara Moore. She was one of Chester’s people.”
Smith started developing homes, staying under the radar while building his empire. While Stokes has had a public presence, Smith has left that to wife Emily, the Homecoming Queen at Georgia Tech who today is deeply involved in philanthropy.
Generosity is in the men’s hands, too - Smith and Stokes acquired a large piece of land in Clay County some years back and use it for hunting, but answered the call when a group wanted to start a Christian-based children’s home. The home got off to a good start; Stokes and Smith donated 500 acres.
“We each feel we can do the right thing because we have each other,” said Smith. “We’ve been fortunate, and we know that the fortunate have to give back in time and talent and treasure.”
Surely, though, there have been disagreements.
“Yes,” said Stokes, “but we work them out.”
Have they ever been mad at each other?
“No,” said Smith. “Never.”