Joan Irvine Smith

Philanthropist, environmentalist, social and corporate activist, horsewoman, art collector, and chronicler of the history of Southern California, Joan Irvine Smith died peacefully at home on Thursday, December 19, 2019 at age 86.

The only child of James Irvine Jr. “Jase” and Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke, Mrs. Smith grew up in Beverly Hills, Pasadena, and what is now Irvine, California. Her father died before her third birthday. Her mother, her paternal grandfather (Jase’s father, James Irvine II, who also was known as James Irvine Jr.), her Richardson grandparents, and her stepfather, Judge Thurmond Clarke, influenced her early years.

Jase had been the Vice-President of The Irvine Company and General Manager of the Irvine Ranch, which once comprised one-seventh of Orange County. He suffered from tuberculosis from his service in the army in World War I until his death in 1935. Her mother was an accomplished commercial artist and businesswoman, and became a prominent social and political leader of Southern California. Mrs. Smith followed her mother’s example.

A witness to the development of Orange County from citrus groves and lima bean fields to its current population of over three million people, Mrs. Smith was an indomitable advocate for the judicious use of water resources and local government’s supervision of land development

Mrs. Smith’s concerns about the responsible use of water resources and real estate development grew out of her experiences with her Grandfather Irvine during her frequent visits to the Irvine ranch. When Mrs. Smith became an adult, she succeeded her mother as a director of The Irvine Company. She first entered the public eye because of her differences with the Company management, which, today, would be described as shareholder activism. Mrs. Smith was an influential force in The Irvine Company’s commitment to donate land for a new campus of the University of California and the State of California’s location of the new campus on the Irvine ranch. She was a dedicated proponent of the Company’s development of a master plan for the City of Irvine and the preservation of animal habitat on the ranch. She was a driving force in establishing Crystal Cove State Park from what had once been a part of the ranch that her grandfather had committed for public use.

Because of her frustration with the James Irvine Foundation’s control of The Irvine Company, Mrs. Smith became an active lobbyist for what became the Tax Reform Act of 1969’s rules for the governance of private foundations, including the limitation on business ownership by private foundations.

As a young girl, Mrs. Smith became an accomplished horsewoman. Later in life, she developed the American Sport Horse, a now-recognized breed that combines the strength and stamina of warm-blooded horses from northern Europe with the spirit of the American thoroughbred. Mrs. Smith produced outstanding examples of the new breed for the hunting and jumping arena from The Oaks stables at San Juan Capistrano, California, Middleburg, Virginia, and Valley Center, California.

Above all, Mrs. Smith was a philanthropist. She founded The Irvine Museum, a free public museum that has provided educational opportunities for elementary school students in Orange County, organized 17 traveling displays to Europe and the United States, and published 21 books about the California school of impressionism. In addition to her involvement with the founding of the University of California’s Irvine Campus, her charitable foundation provided the lead gifts for the acquisition of the headquarters building for the campus’s medical school, the Reeve-Irvine Research Institute for studying the treatment of spinal cord injuries, and the law school. The foundation also provided the initial funding for the National Water Research Institute, a public-private partnership devoted to improving Southern California’s quantity and quality of potable water.

Mrs. Smith is survived by her three sons, James Irvine Swinden and his wife Madeline Martin Swinden, Russell S. Penniman IV and his wife Carol Gordon Penniman, Morton Irvine Smith and his wife Marianne Smith, and six grandchildren, James Irvine Swinden, Jr. “Jase”, Elizabeth Irvine Huntley Penniman, Russell S. Penniman V “Rex”, Antoinette Athalie Smith, Charlotte Alletta Smith and Virginia Rose Smith. She will be interred at Fairhaven Cemetery in Santa Ana, California after a private memorial service for her immediate family.

The Irvine family requests that in lieu of flowers, gifts in memory of Joan Irvine Smith may be given to:

UCI Institute and Museum for California Art

Joan Irvine Smith Fund

UCI Foundation

100 Theory, Suite 250

Irvine, California 92617

Mission San Juan Capistrano’s on-going preservation at:

Mission San Juan Capistrano

26801 Ortega Highway

San Juan Capistrano, California, 92675