OBITUARY

--Young Chang

NEWPORT BEACH -- It wasn’t a fancy chair -- just a little Danish one

with a high back and matching foot rest that the late Kenneth M. Smith

preferred over the more expensive seat right next to it.

For some reason, Mr. Smith just loved his ottoman. His wife, Barbara

Smith, had it reupholstered more times than she can count as he promptly

wore out each of its many faces.

Today, the chair’s a light brown suede. The empty seat, next to the

fireplace and a pile of magazines about airplanes that the former judge

used to pore over, will remind his family of how he read his paper there,

how he watched TV out of the side of his eye.

Mr. Smith died Wednesday at his Newport Beach home after battling

Parkinson’s disease and Shy-Drager syndrome for more than 20 years. On

Thursday, he would have turned 73.

Trying to describe her father in just one conversation, Amy Smith of

Balboa Island arrives at a loss. She chuckles -- there are just so many

memories -- and she doesn’t know which to remember first.

“He loved limericks,” the 39-year-old woman said. “He loved bagpipe

music, and yet on the other side, he was a judge and he took pride in the

law. He really loved the law . . . and the position that gave him to help

people. And he saw it as a chance to help people rather than to punish

people.”

Mr. Smith worked as a trial defense attorney in the 1950s, later

became partners with Arthur D. Guy Jr. and formed Guy and Smith with

offices in Orange and Newport Beach. He got onto the bench in 1968.

He served as a judge at West Court in Westminster for 20 years and

spent his free time camping in Anza Borrego State Park, Yosemite National

Park and Gold Lake in Plumas County, where his ashes will be strewn.

He sailed (Barbara Smith will always remember how he looked standing

at the helm of his boats), rode horses and fished in long underwear on

family trips to the wild. He would barbecue or steam his catch.

He made model airplanes when his three kids were small and shot them

up like rockets, only to get them stuck on the deck of the house. He

drove his car -- a little Porsche 912 that ended up being an “awful

bronze that didn’t come out the way he wanted” -- for 17 years, Barbara

Smith said.

“He was a very good man and a really good father,” Amy Smith said.

“And I’m going to miss him a lot.”

Mr. Smith is survived by his wife, daughters Amy Smith and Linda

Russell, son Daniel Smith and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held May 20. For more information, call

(949) 646-2620.

Contributions may be sent to Parkinson’s Resource Organization, 74-090

El Paseo, Suite 102, Palm Desert, CA 92260 or Parkinson’s Disease

Foundation Patient Service and Outreach, 355 Placentia Ave., Suite 302,

Newport Beach, CA 92663.