Campus Gets $3 Million for a Business School
The family of pioneering Oxnard developer Martin V. “Bud” Smith has pledged $3 million to establish a school of business and economics at Cal State Channel Islands, a move that will raise the profile of the emerging Ventura County university.
Smith, who died in 2001 at age 85, was a longtime supporter of the campus near Camarillo. Six years ago, he created a $5-million endowment to boost the university’s business programs. Now, his family has earmarked the additional money to allow the university to combine its independent business and economics programs into a full-fledged academic school.
It will be the first such separate school at the 4- 1/2 -year-old campus, and will allow the university to rapidly expand its business and economics curricula.
On Wednesday, the university’s governing board voted to name the new school after Smith, who, with the latest donation, becomes the university’s biggest benefactor.
“We are honoring Bud Smith for his support for higher education and his vision that the university would be able to make a significant difference in the lives of the people of this region,” university President Richard Rush said of the real estate investor, whose development projects helped shape the face of Ventura County. “He, and now his family, have given us the wherewithal to establish an academic program of unparalleled excellence.”
Family and university officials say it’s only fitting that Smith’s name be linked with efforts to teach business know-how.
A high school dropout with uncommon business savvy, Smith assembled a large portfolio of restaurants, hotels, apartments and office high-rises over half a century of real estate investing. At one time, he owned more than 200 properties between Santa Maria and Calabasas, including the Fisherman’s Wharf commercial complex at Channel Islands Harbor, the nearby Casa Sirena Marina Resort and the 21-story Financial Plaza tower -- the tallest building between Los Angeles and San Jose.
Smith sold most of his holdings in the mid-1990s to enjoy a life of semi-retirement, although he remained active in civic affairs, especially the creation of Ventura County’s first four-year public university.
Self-effacing and often generous, he gave millions to charity over the years.
Cindi Daley, the youngest of Smith’s four daughters, said the family wanted to build on that philanthropic spirit.
“He believed in Ventura County,” Daley said of her father. “He was certain the growth and expansion of Cal State Channel Islands would enhance all of our lives.”
In addition to launching the Martin V. Smith School of Business and Economics, the money will be used to support faculty research, fund student scholarships and establish an endowed professorship to study land use. It also will pay to create the Martin V. Smith Center for Integrative Decision-Making, a high-tech hub where computer simulations will help students get a feel for running companies and making business decisions.
“I think the significance of these kind of endowments is that, not only does the name live on, but the work lives on,” said William Cordeiro, chairman of the university’s business department. Smith “was a great supporter of the university, and the things he wanted to do when he was alive are now able to continue.”
