Larry Smith recalls how, when he first arrived in Vancouver in 1989, downtown was a “dump.”
The old Lucky Lager Brewery dominated the skyline. Esther Short Park was neglected, overgrown and a haven for undesirable activity.
Today, the brewery is but a memory and the park is the city’s lush centerpiece. Downtown development has taken off with a new hotel and convention center, public art, modern apartment buildings and a new City Hall. In 2016, a massive mixed-use commercial and residential project will begin rising along the waterfront.
For Smith, it just goes to show the importance of having a long-term vision.
“What will this look like in 15 to 20 years?” Smith asks. “How do you build for the future and the next generation? … Sometimes you might not get all those immediate results — they may come later.”
After 25 years of service to the city — 13 years as a city employee and three terms as a city councilor — Smith, 73, is retiring.
“It’s kind of nice to see some of the decisions made in the 1990s come to reality,” Smith said. “It’s a good time for me to step down and for others to step up.”
The son of a career Naval officer, Larry Smith was born in Washington, D.C. At Clemson University in South Carolina, Smith joined the Army ROTC cadet corps, which led him to two combat tours in Vietnam. After 26 years as a professional soldier, he retired as an infantry colonel in 1991, two years after beginning his last duty assignment as Senior Army Advisor for the 104th Training Division (Timberwolves) at the Vancouver Barracks.
At 48, Smith was hired as assistant to City Manager John Fischbach, one of the five city managers he eventually would work with.
Working in the arena of annexation and strategic planning, Smith helped move the city toward the 1997 annexation of Cascade Park. The annexation — the largest in state history — brought in 58,000 more residents and made Vancouver the state’s fourth-largest city. In anticipation of this, the city’s and county’s parks departments consolidated, and Smith became director of the new Vancouver Clark Parks and Recreation Department in 1996.
In 2003, when a seat opened up on the city council, Smith decided to go for it “because it’s where the rubber meets the road,” he said. He won the general election and took office in January 2004. (That year, he also began a five-year stint selling real estate.) He’s served as mayor pro tem for the past six years, filling in when the mayor is absent.
In his years with the city, Smith helped obtain funding to build the Firstenburg Community Center and Propstra Square at Esther Short Park. He developed an inclusion program to better serve people with disabilities and helped launch the city’s Parks Foundation into a successful nonprofit organization. While on the council, he advocated for the construction of the downtown Hilton hotel and convention center, construction of a new east Vancouver police precinct and a fire station at Pacific Park, and finding a long-term solution to fund Vancouver’s streets.
Growth will go on
Looking ahead, Smith predicts the city will continue to evolve. The biggest challenge will be addressing the transportation problems between Vancouver and Portland as the congested bridges become more of a barrier than a conduit. Additional bridges need to be built, he said, emphasizing that good regional transportation systems are key to the local economy.
With his sense of humor, caring nature, and strong work ethic, Smith has been a favorite at City Hall. At his last council meeting Dec. 21, Mayor Tim Leavitt read a proclamation in Smith’s honor and gave him a key to the city. A resource classroom at the Firstenburg Community Center will be named after Smith, and a tree planted in his name at the O.O. Howard House several years ago has been listed as a Witness Tree.
“We’re going to miss him terribly,” said city liaison Peggy Furno, who has known Smith since the day he began working for the city.
“I look at Larry as the genuine, caring person that loves our community, and he gives so much back to it with his personal time,” she said. “I love him. He’s family.”
A longtime volunteer for Meals on Wheels, Smith also is co-founder and co-chair of the nonprofit Community Military Appreciation Committee, a service organization that puts on community events for military veterans and reservists and collects money to help families of military personnel. He enjoys facilitating activities and mobilizing people to action, he said, vowing to continue to be “hands on” in retirement.
“Retirement is really transitioning to something else,” Smith said.
Royce Pollard, who was Vancouver mayor for six terms, served with Smith at the Vancouver Barracks. Smith was a “great soldier” for whom he has a lot of respect, Pollard said.
“Larry’s a hard charger. Larry gets the job done,” he said. “He has done yeoman’s work for this community.”
City Manager Eric Holmes said Smith was “an absolute pleasure to work with,” and that his experience as a city employee gave him an excellent perspective on what it takes to get things done.
“His passion for service and the people of this community — from all walks of life — has led him to be a compassionate council member and policy maker,” Holmes said in a Dec. 21 email. “I am better for having worked with Larry, and we are better for his service.”
