Retired insurance executive David J. Smith, an avid tennis player and sometimes golfer, died July 3 after a three-year battle with colon cancer. He was 69. A Pacific Palisades resident since 1974, Dave was born in Greensburg, Indiana, on January 6, 1937. His father Perry, a naval officer stationed at Alameda during World War II, moved the family to the San Francisco Bay area in 1947 and pursued a graduate degree at Stanford University. The family settled in Hayward, where Dave attended high school and played on the school tennis team. Following a four-year stint in the Navy, Dave graduated from San Jose State University and began a career with the Insurance Company of North America in San Jose. This included positions in the field, Santa Rosa, San Francisco and head-office tenure in Philadelphia. Following a transfer from Philadelphia to Los Angeles to head the local claims office, Dave received an MBA degree from Pepperdine University and continued insurance work with Cravens Dargen Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Connecticut General. A merger with INA created CIGNA Insurance Company, from which he retired in 1997 after 35 years. Dave and his wife, Beverly, met in San Francisco. “I was living in the city and he was in the midst of moving down from Santa Rosa to the financial district,” Beverly recalled. “I was a high school counselor and one of the teachers at my school and her husband were good friends of David and they introduced us.” The husband, Wayne Westphal, was best man when Dave and Beverly married in March 1970. Beverly, who graduated from Washington State University in 1958, joined with her husband to establish the David and Beverly Dalstone Smith Endowment in the College of Liberal Arts at WSU. They were honored as Benefactors by the WSU Foundation last October for their 35 years of helping dozens of deserving students achieve their educational goals. Dave served for many years on the College of Liberal Arts advisory council and the WSU Southern California Leadership Council. After his retirement, Dave was a familiar figure on the tennis courts in the Palisades Highlands, where he belonged to half-a-dozen tennis groups. “He loved to cook and eat and watch basketball on television,” Beverly said, “but he also enjoyed running and walking up and down Palisades Drive to stay in shape.” A licensed real estate agent since the early 1980s (first for Jon Douglas, now with Coldwell Banker), Beverly enjoyed having Dave plan their travel adventures. “He handled the itinerary for trips to places like England, France, Bangkok and Hong Kong, and he loved our second home in the desert.” Dave was also a great reader, “especially mysteries,” said Beverly, “and all the nurses at St. John’s Hospital, where he had chemo for two-and-a-half years, remember him filling out the New York Times crossword puzzle’in ink.” Said family friend Lloyd Ahern, “Dave was a great guy’the sweetest, most authentic person you could know.” In addition to his wife of 36 years, Dave leaves a sister, Jane Gardner (husband Gene) of Redwood Valley, in Northern California. A reception to celebrate his life will be held in the Highlands on July 30 from 3-5 p.m. Contributions in his name can be made to SPCA-LA at 5026 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles 90016.
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