Super Bowl champion has deep Laconia roots

LACONIA — Laconia got a tiny slice of victory on Sunday when the Kansas City Chiefs snatched the Lombardi trophy. Chiefs’ tight-end Noah Gray, second string to star Travis Kelce, was born in Laconia and is an eighth great-grandson of Hon. Lt. Col. Ebenezer Smith, a co-founder of the city.

The 23-year-old Gray clocked 336 yards with 31 receptions and one touchdown this season, his second in the NFL, including one reception for six yards Sunday. He was drafted by the Chiefs in 2021 after being a standout player at both Leominster High School in Massachusetts and Duke University, where he holds the school record for most receptions by a tight end. 

In a remote Chiefs press conference after he was drafted, Gray said he was proud to be among a growing cohort of drafted players from New England and to learn under Kelce, who is widely considered one of the greatest tight ends of all time.

Though Gray’s family moved out of Laconia before he started school, the family has deep roots in the Lakes Region.

Smith is credited by local historians as being a founder of one of the towns that later became Laconia, the first settler in Meredith in 1763 and a driving force behind the settlement and development of the Lakes Region. In addition to his many landholdings in Meredith, Laconia and Gilford — including Varney Point, formerly dubbed Smith Point, and what is now known as Smith Cove — Smith was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, a judge, a selectboard member and state legislator. His lifelong public service featured several stints as president of the New Hampshire Senate between 1790 and 1796 and oversight of land bond distribution in Meredith Bridge, the town born from Meredith that was incorporated into the city in 1855. 

The Laconia Museum and Historical Society, which first posted about Gray’s Laconian roots on its Facebook page Sunday, describes Smith as “Father of the Town.” He will be a feature of the “Founders” volume of their upcoming work “The Notables Series — A History of Laconia.”

The generations between Smith and Gray stayed in New Hampshire, largely in Meredith and Gilford, before moving later to Laconia, according to the genealogical work of Lynn Brody Keltz at the historical society. Several of their shared relatives still call the area home. The Fay family, of Fay’s Boat Yard, are also descendants of Smith, though only distantly related to Gray.

Gray’s grandmother Lori-Lee Kennedy lives in Gilford and his great-uncle, Darren Taylor — the Taylors and the Fays are two large families of Smith descendants — is a longtime city resident. 

“We are just overjoyed and feeling truly blessed,” said Kennedy. She and Taylor described Gray as focused and determined, yet also humble and considerate. 

“He’s just very coachable,” Taylor said of Gray’s niche as an athlete. “He’s a great football player, and an even better human.”

Though often busy because of football commitments, Kennedy added, he loves visiting the Lakes Region.

Like many his age in the Lakes Region in beyond, Gray grew up watching the New England Patriots make a habit out of Super Bowl appearances, according to reporting by the Fitchburg, Massachusetts-based Sentinel and Enterprise earlier this month, and he has now realized a lifelong dream of making his own appearance there.