See the update at the end of this post about county supervisors remembering Smith before adjourning today's Board meeting in his honor.
ORIGINAL POST, OCT. 1, 2:18 P.M.: Charles V. “Chuck” Smith, who as an Orange County supervisor during the Weekly's toddler years became our face for good (advocating for needy children) and bad (proposing a polluting, 24-hour-a-day, international commercial airport where the El Toro Marine base used to be), has died.
Suffering from a variety of ailments, Smith passed away from natural causes while in hospice care at Country Villa nursing home in Murrieta. He was 80.
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See also:
Duck, Supe: Feds hand Supervisor Chuck Smith his head in discussion of El Toro Airport
2003: The Year in Killing El Toro
Smith, who served on the Board of Supervisors from 1997 to 2005, two of them as board chairman. He was already known to many in the county from his stints on the Westminster City Council, including serving as mayor, and the Children and Families Commission of Orange County.
But he turned up most on the Weekly radar for his staunch support of the airport at El Toro, which made him one of our scariest people even before we created the annual Orange County's Scariest People issue.
Smith is survived by his wife, Nancy Smith; four children, Robin Summers, 59, of Denver; Jeff Smith, 51, of Murrieta; Stacy Munoz, 45, of Roundrock, Texas; and Scott Smith, 39, of Gallatin, Tennessee; and 11 grandchildren.
An Oct. 14 memorial at the Rose Center in Westminster is tentatively scheduled.
UPDATE, OCT. 2, 2:14 P.M.: The Orange County Board of Supervisors adjourned today's meeting in honor of late supervisor Chuck Smith, who apparently kept tabs on the Board and the First District he used to represent beyond his board tenure.
Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who now represents the Fightin' First, mentioned this during member comments, and Third District Supervisor Bill Campbell and Board Chairman John Moorlach also shared stories about Smith today.
A statement from the county follows on the next page . . .
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2012
County of Orange Officials Remember
Former Supervisor Charles V. Smith(Santa Ana, CA) — The Orange County Board of Supervisors adjourned today's
Board meeting in memory of former First District Supervisor Charles V. “Chuck”
Smith, who died this weekend at age 80.In offering today's adjournment, current First District Supervisor Janet Nguyen noted
that Supervisor Smith had remained involved in the First District after his time on the
Board and was well respected by many. Board Chairman John M.W. Moorlach
recalled that Supervisor Smith was a delight to work with while Moorlach served the
County as Treasurer-Tax Collector. Prior to today's meeting, Third District
Supervisor Bill Campbell stated “Supervisor Chuck Smith was the kind of elected
official who truly viewed himself as a public servant. He worked hard for his district
and served the County in many leadership roles.”Smith was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1996 and represented the First
District for two terms from January 1997 – January 2005. He served as Chairman of
the Board of Supervisors in 1999 and 2000. During his tenure, he also represented
the County on groups including the Children and Families Commission, Local
Agency Formation Commission, the Urban Counties Caucus and the Southern
California Association of Governments. He was instrumental in establishing the Pio
Pico Mentoring program through which County employees mentored students at Pio
Pico Elementary School in Santa Ana.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.