Gordon Smith was born on February 12, 1888 in Wake County, North Carolina. Smith was a career officer in the North Carolina National Guard, having first joined that organization in 1905. During World War I, he served overseas and took part in the Somme Offensive and Ypres-Lys. Shortly after the war's end, he was appointed assistant adjutant general, which position he held nearly continuously until his retirement in 1947. Smith died in Raleigh on October 28, 1970.