Alex Archibald George Smith was born in St Anthony, Newfoundland and Labrador. As a young man, he worked in the family sawmill business and, with his brother, operated a small coastal freighter around northern Newfoundland and southern Labrador. After a fire that destroyed the vessel and nearly took his life, he worked as a craftsman with the Grenfell Mission and later as a self-employed carpenter.At the age of thirty, he became a lay-supply minister with the United Church of Canada. He was ordained into full-time ministry at forty-three and served the church in many capacities and on several pastoral charges. In 1970 he was elected president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Conference of the United Church. He retired from full-time ministry in 1982.