Curtis Edward Smith

In ill health, Smith continued on the Auburn-area parks board until his death Monday at age 68 at an Auburn transitional care facility.

Smith’s daughter, Crista, said that he died after a massive infection spread throughout his body over the weekend.

A celebration of Smith’s life is planned for 6 p.m. May 26 at the Recreation District’s Canyon View Community Center’s Sierra Room – steps away from the board room where Smith spent countless meetings over almost a decade planning the area’s recreational future as both a board member and chairman.

As a high school student in Manhattan Beach, Smith had teamed with a Chilean exchange student to reach the state doubles tennis finals. Smith also played water polo and other sports in his youth. He joined the Air Force at 18 and made the military and civil service a career that would last through the final closure of McClellan Air Base in Sacramento in 2001.

His sister, Donna Woodin of Beaumont, said that serving as an elected official came easily for Smith, although he was a relatively private person. Early on, he showed a propensity for discussion as a member of his high school’s debate team and he always was one to have a careful budget.

Those attributes served him well but were bolstered by another key component, she said.

“He fell in love with Auburn when he moved to work at McClellan,” Woodin said. “He loved the community.”

Obituary provided by Gus Thomson of the Auburn Journal.