Obituary: Don Smith, election agent for Oxford Green Party

Don Smith first moved to Oxford in the early 1980s and soon became involved in the Green Party.

He co-founded Oxford GreenPrint, designed as an “accessible environmentally-aware print-shop for small groups”, which he housed in his basement at Aston Street and using the computer in his attic he typed Green Party literature.

Mr Smith shopped locally and paid for everything in cash, eschewing the use of bank cards. On principle he got rid of his car, and walked and cycled everywhere.

In 1987 he stood as the Green Party candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon and stood unsuccessfully for election to Oxford City Council on a number of occasions.

For a period of around 15 years he was the Green Party’s election agent.

He is credited with helping make Oxford’s Green Party one of the most prominent in the country.

Born in Torquay, Mr Smith was an original member of the Ecological Party which was founded in 1975.

He studied computing at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology before doing postgraduate research at Exeter University.

After spending two years working at ICL he moved to Oxford and became a prominent member of the green community.

In the mid-1990s he helped start Oxford Cycle Workshop, a co-operative which promoted cycling in the city, and in 1998 he founded software company Quintessence Systems.

Mr Smith developed his Art/Party House, which he conceived and created with single-minded flair and vision, commissioning several local artists to create a series of painted and sculpted spaces inside an externally ordinary terraced house.

The Art/Party House was a unique 3D sculpture in which he lived, and to which thousands of people came, especially during Oxford Art Weeks, when he and his friends worked in shifts showing seemingly unending groups of visitors around from morning until evening.

The cause of Mr Smith’s death on Monday, October 15, was yesterday still unknown.

He is survived by his six-year-old son Max.