Ira C Smith

Ira C. Smith
Obituary
July, 2024

The iconic life of Ira C. Smith signed off on July 20, 2024. Born in his parents’ bedroom
in Plum Tree, Indiana on July 18, 1936, Ira had a passionate lifetime love of sports. He
captained his high school basketball team and, true to his Hoosier roots, always preferred
that sport above all others.
Ira was the first in his family to graduate from college, receiving both a business degree
from Hanover College in 1958 and a broadcasting certificate from the Univ. of Cincinnati
in 1964. In between those two college stints he served in the U.S. Army, where he got his
first introduction to broadcasting. That led to a remarkable 60-year career in
broadcasting, serving at radio stations in Indiana and Michigan (including play-by-play
for University of Michigan football) before moving across the country in 1976 to Napa,
California and KVON (1440 AM)/KVYN (99.3 FM).
Ira became “The Voice of Napa Valley Sports,” delivering sports updates and providing
live play-by-play coverage of literally thousands of high school football, basketball and
other games over a 48-year span. He never retired, calling a playoff basketball game in
February at age 87. He just recently finalized his fall ’24 football broadcast schedule.
In addition to his radio exploits, Ira served for several years as the in-arena public address
announcer for the Sacramento Kings and voiced the first “NBA 2K” video game. He also
hosted, MC’d and announced more community events than anyone could ever count.
So far Ira is a member of three different halls of fame: the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame,
the Napa High Athletic Hall of Fame and the Vintage High Athletic Hall of Fame. The
Napa City Council declared September 10, 2022 “Ira C. Smith Day.”
The Napa Valley community was incredibly important to Ira and he served it in
innumerable ways. Among many civic and volunteer roles, his favorites were with the
Kiwanis Club of Napa, the Napa Chamber of Commerce and the Napa Valley Tennis
Association. When fires hit the Valley, he spent long hours in the radio station’s studio,
live on the air providing updates, guidance, and reassurance to Napans.
Ira is survived by his brothers Tom (Lisa) and Charles (Mary), sons Brad (Kristy) and
Tyler (Heather), daughter Heidi Horton (Coby) and ex-wife Virginia Yee, along with
seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
The Smith family will conduct a private service in Warren, Indiana and there will be a
public celebration of Ira’s life, career and commitment to the Napa Valley community on
Saturday, August 24 at 11:00am at Messner Gym on the campus of Napa High School
(2475 Jefferson Street).

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