Don Smith; Former Times Reporter and Editor

Don Smith, a veteran reporter and editor who worked for The Times Orange County Edition for 34 years, has died. He was 71.

Smith died at home Thursday of complications of emphysema.

“He was Mr. Orange County,” said his longtime friend and reporting partner, Don Angel. “He loved the county passionately and he was interested in keeping it clean, straight and honest.”

In 43 years as a reporter, bureau chief, political writer, assistant city editor and restaurant critic, Smith won 39 Orange County Press Club writing and photography awards. He was honored twice by the Los Angeles Times with its annual awards for best writing and reporting. This April, he received a special Press Club award for outstanding lifetime achievement.

“I’ve said every day of my life in this business, I never had a job that was more fun,” Smith said after accepting the award. “It was fun every day.”

After covering Orange County for the Fullerton News Tribune and the Register of Santa Ana, Smith joined the Orange County staff of The Times in 1956, where his byline appeared regularly for three decades.

“He symbolized journalism in Orange County,” said Robert G. Magnuson, president of The Times Orange County. “Don was an institution in Orange County, and a model for everybody who followed him. His career spanned four decades, and he will be sorely missed.”

Smith grew up in La Habra, the only child of a homemaker and a lumber businessman. He graduated from Fullerton High School and Fullerton College, and except for three years in the Navy, lived his entire life in the county.

Smith wanted to be a jazz trumpet player but discovered by reading a musicians union booklet that the market was saturated in the Los Angeles area. A journalism professor told him he was a fine writer and encouraged him to go into the profession.

“That was it, for the rest of his life,” said his wife, Vi, who also worked at The Times.

Smith, like many former journalists, was a heavy cigarette smoker, his wife said, and it cost him.

“Many times he’d be sitting in front of me in the newsroom with three or four cigarettes lit at once,” she said.

After nearly dying of pulmonary diseases in 1985, Smith finally quit, and became a crusader against smoking, urging colleagues to quit.

He is survived by his children, Janette Smith of Hemet, Matthew of Venice and Michael Richard of Morongo Valley; his stepchildren, Lawrence Kastner, Gene Kastner, Michelle Kastner and Christy Kastner; nine step-grandchildren, and two step-great-grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements were being made through Fairview Memorial Park and Mortuary in Orange. Donations may be sent to the Orange County Chapter of the American Lung Assn.