Michael Allen Smith

Michael Allen Smith was the second child, and first of three sons, born to Richard and Prudence Smith in Lodi, California on February 14, 1948. At age two, Mike and family moved to West Covina. He was baptized into the Holy Trinity at the West Covina Presbyterian church. Mike later became a member of Redeemer Lutheran Church.

As a child Mike was very driven, this was acknowledged by two prep schools on the East coast. Although he did not attend a prep school, Mike became a co-valedictorian at Edgewood High School of West Covina. He worked his way through college and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from Cal-Poly Pomona. Mike went on to earn an MBA from USC and completed all the course work toward a Masters in Computer Science at UCLA. When it came to rooting for college football, Mike favored USC. After a brief time in the Airforce, at the invitation of Uncle Sam, Mike began working at CCH Computax in 1974 where he began as a programmer and worked his way up to Vice President. His strong work ethic was evident in everything he did.

Mike enjoyed the Huntington Beach lifestyle. He loved the warm weather and bicycled to the beach regularly. He also enjoyed traveling as a child with his parents and siblings, with his daughters as a single dad, with his wife Donna, and for business. Mike reached his goal of travelling to all 50 of the United States. In addition, he traveled to places in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Tahiti, and Australia. Mike was devoted to family and is credited to organizing family functions and keeping everyone in touch. Many of his vacations and trips were planned around meeting with distant relatives.

Mike was a lifelong lover of Disneyland from the time of his first visit shortly after it opened in the 50’s. He held an annual pass for many years. He and Donna also took each of his daughters and their families to Disneyworld Florida on vacation. He loved the rides and the whole “Disney experience”. He shared his passion for the happiest place on earth with his grandkids regularly and dreamed of retiring to work as a train conductor or popcorn vendor. He was the man with the plan when it came to a Disneyland excursion.

Mike Smith and Donna Dehne were married at Redeemer Lutheran Church on November 19th, 1988. Mike had three daughters; Jennifer, Heather and Kimberly. Mike is proceeded in death by his parents Richard and Prudence and younger brother Bill. Mike is survived by his wife, Donna Dehne, his sister Pat (Ken) Nordstrom, his brother Wayne (Patrice) Smith, as well as, his three daughters, Jennifer (Gordon) McKervey, Heather (Keith) Alsobrook, Kimberly (Mike) Presson, and his six grandchildren Jacob, Michael (Tre), Jordan, Megan, Brandon, and Dylan.