FURNITURE DOCTOR STAFF

 Twenty years ago, when Walter Smith was passed over for a promotion at Kimberly Clark, he decided to change careers. He decided to become a doctor -- a furniture doctor.

``I was mad for three days,'' said Mr. Smith, now 55, who worked at the factory for 10 years.

``I was mad about something I didn't get, but it was really something I didn't even want. That's when I realized it was time for me to do what I really wanted to do in life and go for it.''

Now his business, The Furniture Doctor, occupies four buildings along the 3000 block of Peach Orchard Road. He specializes in furniture
refinishing, antique restoration and supplies.

And Mr. Smith will soon open an antique gallery in one building, a former Amoco station, which will be called ``The Filling Station.''

It was a career step he had inadvertently planned for all of his life. Since age 10 he has fostered a love of antiques, digging around the Augusta area for antique bottles and Indian artifacts.

``I started when I was a kid fooling with this stuff,'' Mr. Smith said. ``I just had an attraction to it. You know how you have that gut feeling that this is something you want to do?''

By trial and error and by studying with others he learned the painstaking and often tedious process of furniture refinishing and restoration.

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