Smith is the director of Sinclair Ventures. Previously, he served as the vice president of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., since 1990 and its director since 1986. Before joining Sinclair in 1990, Smith was an oral and maxillofacial surgeon in a professional corporation where he was the sole officer, director, and stockholder. 

Smith is the founder, chair of the board, and president emeritus of the Gerstell Academy, an independent, co-educational, non-sectarian school in Carroll County that offers students in kindergarten through 12th grade an educational program of excellence in a community focused on Gerstell’s guiding principles and motto, “Leadership, Honor, Courage.” 

Smith and his wife, Venice K. Paterakis, DDS, endowed the first professorship at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry—the Frederick G. Smith, MS, DDS, & Venice K. Paterakis, DDS, Endowed Professorship in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. Created in 2015, it supports the work of a distinguished faculty member, enabling this professor to pursue new areas of research and innovative teaching methods. He is also chair of the Board Freven Foundation. 

Smith is a graduate of Baltimore’s Boys’ Latin School. He graduated from West Virginia University with a BS in 1971, received his MS from West Virginia University School of Medicine in 1974, and received his DDS from the University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD) in 1978. Venice K. Paterakis, DDS, graduated from UMSOD with a BS in dental hygiene in 1978 and a DDS in 1981. Smith and Paterakis received Honorary Doctor of Public Service degrees from the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 2018. 

Smith has served on the UMBF Board of Trustees since 2007.