Michael Harrison Smith

MIchael H. Smith, 80, Santa Barbara, a Pasadena native known for his generosity and love of music, passed away peacefully on October 31, 2025, following a triumphant game #6 win by his beloved Dodgers. Born on August 21, 1945, he was the only child of the late Geraldine “Jerry” Ward Smith and Albert Lawrence Smith, Jr. He was raised in Pasadena, California, on Oakland Ave. by his mother and late stepfather, Edward “Ned” Brinton Smith III.

Michael attended Polytechnic School, where he was a member of the school’s first high school graduating class. A gifted and graceful athlete, he lettered in football, basketball, baseball and track. One Saturday afternoon, Jim Murray, the legendary Los Angeles Times sports writer, described Michael: “this is the first time I’ve ever seen a half back tear into the end zone and have the football follow him in on the vacuum.” Michael ran so fast that he set longstanding USA national records for 6-man football with 35 touchdowns and 219 points in a season. A testament to both his agility and his joy in the game, Michael often credited his quickness and balance to summers spent jumping from rock-to-rock at Camp Tocaloma in Sedona, Arizona.

After high school, Michael attended Menlo College, where he continued to play football, and later transferred to the University of Southern California. At USC, he was a proud member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity where he met his best friend, Michael Thomas, and “The Mikes” began their life-long adventures. At USC, Michael majored in Art History at USC both for his undergraduate and graduate studies, with a focus in Museology.

A lifelong advocate for the arts, Michael’s passion found form in a remarkable career. He opened the Michael Smith Gallery in West Los Angeles in 1971 and later was a partner in the Jack Glenn Gallery in Corona del Mar. He directed the Newport Harbor Art Museum, and then the Baxter Art Gallery. At Baxter, from 1977 to 1982, he championed groundbreaking artists who helped define the contemporary art scene in Southern California, reinvigorating the institution’s contemporary‐art program on the Caltech campus. Under his leadership, the gallery commissioned and exhibited works by groundbreaking artists and practices—positioning the gallery as a bold, experimental node in the Los Angeles/Pasadena art ecosystem.

From 1982 to 1996, he continued his involvement with contemporary art, artists, and arts organizations both curating and contributing to exhibitions. As a support to working artists, he founded The Business of Living for Artists, an art consultancy devoted to helping artists sustain creative lives.
In 1996 he became the director of the Manne Gallery, Santa Barbara and continued in that role until it closed in to 1999. During his span, he facilitated the purchase and donation of a significant Christian Boltansky artwork to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Michael was an accomplished studio artist in his own right, whose work was celebrated in gallery circles for its intelligence and thought provoking concepts. His work—rooted in photography, written themes, and mixed media—reflected a thoughtful engagement with culture, perception, and often echoed back to artistic work before him. His red pickup truck’s license plate, “LA AS ART,” captured his lifelong belief that art is not confined to galleries but woven through the rhythms of all of our everyday lives.

His extensive notes, correspondences, and exhibition archives tell a detailed narrative of decades immersed in the Southern California art community, and are now housed in the Getty Research Institute Library.

Later in life, Michael founded Gray Whales Count, a non-profit dedicated to marine mammal research. For over one decade Michael, in the role of lead researcher, coordinated grant writing, fundraising, data collection, and reporting. From February to May, he led a team of land-based community volunteers from their viewing station at Coil Oil Point Reserve, tracking the migration of gray whales as they traveled northbound in the nearshore route along the Santa Barbara coast. The data collected continues to be valuable, enabling informed decisions about shipping, oil drilling, and ocean-based construction.

Michael is survived by his wife of nearly 30 years, Eileen Avery; his sons from his first marriage to Debra Taylor Smith, Taylor Albert Smith (and wife Joann) of Kirkland, Washington, and Edward “Ted” Brinton Smith V (and wife Amanda) of New York, New York; and his cherished grandchildren Cooper Harrison Smith, Rosa Grace Smith, Kobe Louie Smith, Edward “Ned” Brinton Smith VI, and Oliver Bennard Smith. He is also survived by his brother Craig Smith and sister Dinah Smith, and was predeceased by his brother Edward “Ward” Brinton Smith IV.

He leaves behind a legacy of creativity, curiosity, and compassion that will continue to inspire all who knew him.

A celebration of Michael’s life and love of the ocean will be held this coming Spring in Santa Barbara. Details will be posted here early next year.

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