ORANGE : ‘The Big Guy’ Retires After Record Service

When Mayor Don E. Smith moved to Orange in 1950, the bedroom community of 10,000 still boasted fragrant orange groves and a farm town atmosphere.

Advertised as “exciting, sun-filled suburbia” and now crossed by five freeways, the central Orange County city over the years has attracted commercial centers, manufacturing plants and become home to nearly 110,000 people.

Smith has watched it all.

Today, “the big guy,” as he is called by City Hall insiders, retires after nearly 25 years on the City Council, a tenure that makes him the longest-serving-elected official in Orange County. And when Smith leaves the council chambers, many believe that a little of Old Orange goes with him.

“He never lost (the ideal) that he represented the people, and he kept thinking of Orange as that rural city with a traffic circle,” said 4th District Supervisor Don R. Roth, who first met Smith while serving on the Anaheim City Council in 1971.

In fact, Smith is credited by many with spearheading a movement to preserve the downtown traffic circle and plaza that symbolize Orange’s small-town history.

“What you see in the preservation of the old part of town has to do with his drive and his enthusiasm,” said David Hart, an Orange native who served 19 years on the Planning Commission.

Old Towne isn’t the only place on which Smith leaves his mark. It was also Smith who persuaded state leaders to name the Orange Freeway after the city and who promoted the addition of the Taft and El Modena library branches.

Smith was even honored by the County Board of Supervisors, who designated Nov. 16 as Don E. Smith Day in recognition of his service on countywide agencies addressing such issues as sanitation, solid waste and traffic congestion.

Smith was elected to the City Council in 1966, a fiscal and political conservative on a board that was considered liberal for the city. Imposing at 6-foot-5, Smith earned an early reputation for being a stubborn “bulldog” who rarely would let an issue slip away. In his early years on the council, his was often a lone voice of dissent.

Despite his willingness to take unpopular positions, Smith handily won seven consecutive elections, and served two other terms as mayor from 1968 to 1972. Smith believes that his forthright manner earned him a loyal constituency.

Smith and his wife, Gladie, raised five children in the city while his successful real estate business made him a millionaire. He announced that he would not run for reelection during his recuperation from surgery last June to remove blood clots from the arteries leading to his lungs.

Smith says he will retire to spend time with his family and travel.

Colleagues say Smith’s political contacts and savvy will be missed, but few expect him to disappear completely from City Hall.

Smith said that he will miss “being where the action is” but added that if it doesn’t “cause any political problems,” he would continue some involvement with city matters.