Eddie Smith Jr. spent decades building Grady-White Boats into a quiet powerhouse of the North Carolina coast -- the kind of company that never chased venture capital or a splashy IPO, just made excellent boats and minded its own business. Then his sole heir died, and the question of legacy became something more urgent than succession planning. Rather than pocket a $400 million sale, the 83-year-old did something that still startles in this gilded age: he gave it all away, pledging every future dollar of profit to charity. Inspired by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard's radical act of corporate generosity, Smith restructured his life's work so that the company would serve something larger than his own estate. "I don't need a 200-foot yacht or to spend the winters in the Mediterranean," he said. "I'm really happy here in eastern North Carolina."
