Originally Posted: May 26, 2019
Doug Smellage serves on the boards of the Ronald McDonald House, the Salesmanship Club, the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, and the SMU Dedman College. He is the chairman of the SMU Alumni Association.
Doug Smellage was 12 years old when he started mowing yards in his North Dallas neighborhood. Little did he know at the time that his part-time summer job would blossom into a lifelong career.
Smellage mowed yards while a student at Hillcrest High School (when he wasn’t tied up with school work or training and competing as an all-district high jumper and all-district basketball player).
At SMU he continued mowing yards with the help of his ATO fraternity brothers. After graduating in 1977, he was preparing for law school, but his love of yard work kept calling to him. In a pivotal moment, he left law school behind and headed to Texas Tech to study horticulture.
Armed with a graduate degree in horticulture, Smellage returned to Dallas in 1979 to marry his high school sweetheart, Ann, and with a $16,000 loan, he started up Lawns of Dallas in 1980. READ MORE