Barbara Barnard Smith
June 10, 1920 - July 3, 2021
Dr. Barbara B. Smith was born on June 10, 1920 in Ventura, California to Fred W. and Grace Hobson Smith. She grew up in Ojai, living in the home that is now the Ojai City Hall. She attended Ojai Valley School whose founder Edward Yeomans made a constant and consistent effort to instill a love of music in the students. Barbara was an accomplished pianist and organist and pursued music as an undergraduate at Pomona College and completed her graduate education at The Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. After graduating Eastman in 1945 she took a position at the University of Hawaii to teach piano and theory at their recently established music department.
She soon realized that that the program, then almost exclusively focused on Western art and music, should not be limited to the music of only one of Hawaii’s multi-ethnic communities. With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, she traveled to thirteen Asian countries to collect books, scores, and recordings of traditional and contemporary music.
At UH she then developed new courses that focused on the study of music and the relationship it shares with the development of a culture, a study that came to be known as ethnomusicology. She also established the master’s degree program in ethnomusicology in 1960 followed by the PhD program in 1992. Today the ethnomusicology program at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa is one of the world’s most widely celebrated. She formally retired from UH in 1982. In 1983, Professor Smith was honored by the City of Honolulu as a “pioneer” for her numerous contributions to the artistic and cultural life of Hawaii. In 2007 she received the Honpau Hongwanji Living Treasures Award, and the 2008 Governor’s Award for Distinguished Achievement in Culture Arts and Humanities. In 2010 she received the prestigious Koizumi Fumio Prize in Ethnomusicology.
She participated in her Ventura County SmithHobson business throughout her life and was an avid supporter of many cultural and charitable organizations in Hawaii and Ventura County. She established the Barbara Barnard Smith Fund for World Music in 2012 at the VCCF which has supported non-Western music performance in Ventura County every year since, including grants to the Ojai Music Festival and a special grant this year to the New West Symphony in support of their virtual World Culture, Local Music programs. She also served as a member of the Smith-Hobson Foundation since 1963 and contributed to the Museum of Ventura County supporting the George Stuart Gallery and most recently providing an endowment to help fund their executive director position.
She is survived by her Sister-In-Law Janice Petit Willis, nephew Jeffrey P. Smith, niece Marilyn Smith Cassidy, niece Barbara Smith Stupay, nephew Gregory H. Smith, as well as 2 grandnieces and 6 grandnephews, 5 great-grandnephews and 1 great-grandniece.
She is preceded in death by both her parents, her brother Rodney Hobson Smith and her sister Helen Margaret Smith.
At her request there will be no service and her ashes scattered to the sea in Hawaii.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to The Museum of Ventura County, Ventura County Community Foundation, Ojai Valley School, Pomona College, or a charity of your choice.