Greg Smith Memorial Garden: Campus Site Pays Tribute to Professor of Geography and Activist

Overcome with emotion, June Burlingame Smith welcomed the assembled audience of her late husband’s colleagues, students, friends and family to the dedication of the Greg Smith Memorial Garden at California State University, Dominguez Hills on Feb. 23.

“I could not have done this without all of you,” she said to those gathered for the dedication that was held at the site of the garden, located at the southwest corner of the Social and Behavorial Sciences (SBS) building on campus.“Greg wanted a place for students and the community to come together that would connect them to nature and get them away from the stress and hustle and bustle of everyday life. A piece of you is here too; this isn’t just Greg’s garden. It’s for the whole community, for us and our memories [of him] that we not only cherish, but act on.”

Greg Smith, professor of geography at CSU Dominguez Hills from 1968 to 1992, died in 1997. During his tenure, he passed on a love and respect for nature to his students, many of whom work in conservation-related fields today. On his field trips throughout Los Angeles, he shared with them an awareness of how urban issues affected the natural world and what could be done so that both worlds could exist in harmony.

Smith championed environmental causes in his community of San Pedro and throughout Los Angeles County, serving as an alternate on the California Coastal Commission for Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who was the South Coast region commissioner in the 1970s. Smith was also a member of the Los Angeles Tree Commission and founder and longtime president of the Point Fermin Residents Association in San Pedro. In 1991, Smith encouraged San Pedro residents to plant discarded Christmas trees at Angels Gate Park, resulting in the Greg Smith Conifer Grove, which now contains 300 trees of 13 varieties.

David Sigurdson, emeritus professor of earth sciences, remembered his colleague as someone who was ahead of the times in his strong commitment to environmental and conservation issues in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“At that time, the environmental movement was just growing,” he said. “I think that Greg would be completely in tune with everything that’s going on today. Even in those days, he was very interested in the environment. I think it’s a very fitting tribute.”

In the program, Smith was also remembered by his former colleagues Donald MacPhee, emeritus vice president of Academic Affairs, and Judd Grenier, emeritus professor of history, who both reminisced about the early days of Dominguez Hills and Smith’s arrival on campus as a founding member of the geography faculty.

“This brings back wonderful memories of a time over 40 years ago when some of us were given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to share in shaping a new college in this place,” said MacPhee to the crowd gathered in the SBS courtyard.

President Mildred García expressed her regrets at not having had the opportunity to know Greg Smith and extended her thanks on behalf of the university to the Smith family for its gift of beautification to the CSU Dominguez Hills campus.

“I say thank you on behalf of our students, our university, our faculty and staff, [to] June and your family, for doing this for us,” she said. “It’s families like yours who come and give back to the university in so many ways. You don’t forget us. You’re really part of the fabric of this institution.”

Working with landscape architects Mia Lehrer and Associates, Smith’s family was able to capture his bond with nature in the Memorial Garden. Granite stonework symbolizes his love of mountain climbing and interest in Celtic design, while an abundance of trees pay tribute to his grandparents who helped establish Eagle Rock, Idaho in the 1860s, bringing 1,000 trees to the barren prairie. Gingko trees recall Greg and June’s days at Reed College, where they first met, in Portland, Ore., while a bamboo grove is a reminder of Smith’s trips to China and Japan, that complements the CSUDH Japanese Garden.

Originally completed last fall, the Greg Smith Memorial Garden was damaged in October 2007 when a water main broke near the SBS building, flooding the area and the newly completed garden. June Smith introduced representatives of Physical Plant, director Randy Sharp and assistant director and chief engineer Steve Richards, planner, estimator and scheduler, and thanked them for their unit’s efforts in restoring the garden in a timely manner.

“You can make all the plans, write the checks,” she pointed out, “but if you don’t have the people who put the spades in the ground and look at the details, and say, ‘No, that isn’t right, do it over again,’ it doesn’t come out as well.”

In her welcome to the assembled guests, Gilia Smith expressed her pride in her father and his deep regard for all those who knew him.

“I was proud of my dad,” she said. “He was able and willing to do a lot of things, not just for himself and his family. He was someone with a great love of community and had a fierce passion for conserving and maintaining access to public spaces so that people from all different walks of life could gather together and enjoy that community. It is our hope that this garden, designed with Dad in mind, will contribute to the larger sense of community on this campus.”

The Greg Smith Memorial Garden was made possible by private contributions. For information on becoming a supporter of the Greg Smith Memorial Garden, contact Greg Saks, interim vice president of University Advancement at (310) 243-3955.

- Joanie Harmon

Photos above: Nestled between the Social and Behavioral Sciences and Natural Science and Mathematics (NSM) buildings, the Greg Smith Memorial Garden provides a natural refuge from the bustle of campus life.

June Smith thanks the Dominguez Hills community, family and friends for their support of the Greg Smith Memorial Garden at the site's dedication on Feb. 23.

Photos by GK