Bob Smith, 59; Owned TV and Radio Stations, Santa Barbara Magazine

Santa Barbara civic leader Bob Smith, owner of local television station KEYT-TV Channel 3, radio station KEYT-AM and Santa Barbara Magazine, has died after a four-year battle with cancer. He was 59.

Smith, who died Tuesday, graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1970. He worked for the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C., then served as director of youth affairs for the Democratic National Committee from 1974 to 1976.

During the administration of President Jimmy Carter, Smith joined Carter’s White House staff and was named assistant director of the Community Services Administration, responsible for a number of poverty programs.

He was remembered by those who worked most closely with him as a remarkably kind man who was very family-oriented. Debra Eger, his assistant at the Smith Broadcasting Group, called him “the most loving, most caring” man she ever knew.

“There wasn’t a life he didn’t affect,” she said. “He was just a wonderful man.”

Interviewed by Oprah Winfrey for an article published in Santa Barbara Magazine last June, Smith described being diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer in 1999, a slow-growing illness with no cure. He was given up to five years to survive.

“There are no guarantees in life. But I was given an opportunity to know that an end to my life was coming sooner rather than later,” he said. “Every sunset becomes more beautiful. Every day with your children becomes more fulfilling. It is a chance to magnify and live 100 hours in one hour, 100 weeks in a few weeks.”

Smith routinely donated television time to an annual Santa Barbara telethon for Unity Shoppe, which provides clothes, food and toys to the needy. He recently was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for civic service by the Santa Barbara News-Press.

Smith and his wife of 32 years, Anne, moved to Santa Barbara in 1987, just after his firm, Smith Broadcasting, bought KEYT-TV for $30 million. He also owned five television stations in New York state and Alaska.

Memorial services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara. In addition to his wife, Smith is survived by his mother, a daughter and a son.

The family asked that remembrances be made to the Louis Warschaw Prostate Cancer Center in Los Angeles, the Unity Shoppe and the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara.