Fair Board member Randy Smith dies

Randy Smith loved wearing Hawaiian shirts so much that he had two

different categories -- regular and dressy.

Smith’s penchant for tropical motifs will be honored at his

memorial service Tuesday. The Orange County Fair Board member passed

away Sunday night. His cause of death is unknown. He was 55.

The colorful shirts served as an extension of Smith’s jovial

personality, said Emily Sanford, who served with Smith on the board.

“He was always looking for the positive in things, and in our

lifetime, we really need that,” Sanford said.

Smith made his mark as a lobbyist and Republican fund-raiser,

working on the expansion of John Wayne Airport in 1990 and a contract

for Motorola for a countywide emergency system.

The Yorba Linda resident served on the fair board for 13 years and

focused on making the fair all-inclusive, said Becky Bailey-Findley,

the fair’s general manager.

“There was never a community organization or a small

businessperson that he could ever say ‘no’ to,” Bailey-Findley said.

“He always wanted all of them involved, even when we were running out

of room.”

He was also one of Centennial Farms’ strongest supporters, Sanford

said.

Smith was the kind of person who could lighten up any situation,

Bailey-Findley said.

“He was a very calming presence,” Bailey-Findley said. “He was

extremely intelligent and sensitive, but nobody enjoyed a good joke

more than him. He was very witty and, if we had a really tense

situation in a board meeting, he could always find the right word to

not only make a point, but to add a little bit of humor.”

Supervisor Jim Silva said “the county lost a good friend” in

Smith.

-- Deirdre Newman