Russell 'Jim' Smyth Remembered As Community Favorite On And Off Shore

The shores of Sag Harbor Bay, the walkways of North Haven Village Hall, and the nightlife on Sag Harbor’s Main Street feel a little bit empty with the passing of Russell “Jim” Smyth on June 19, a mere week before his 67th birthday. Mr. Smyth was an influential member of both the Sag Harbor and North Haven communities. In Sag Harbor, he contributed to the Main Street business center as the owner of The Corner Bar and Restaurant, which he founded in 1978. He also helped foster a love of sailboat racing as a founding member of The Breakwater Yacht Club in 1988.

A resident of North Haven, Mr. Smyth started as a Sag Harbor man, born to Dr. Russell and Carroll Smyth on June 26, 1950. A graduate of Pierson High School, Mr. Smyth was seemingly always destined to be a part of the Sag Harbor community.

Bart Gullong, a longtime friend, said he met Mr. Smyth when he was a bartender at the Black Buoy bar in the late 1970s. Mr. Gullong said that, while the Black Buoy was a popular spot on Main Street at the time, it attracted mostly old sailors and offered little to the younger residents.

With that thought came the idea for The Corner Bar, taking an old tavern at 1 Main Street frequented by the older sailors in the area and turning it into something else.

“His vision was to change the old man’s tavern into something that attracted younger people of our generation,” Mr. Gullong said. “It was the nexus of our generation in Sag Harbor. It was the place that, when you left town, it was the first place you came back to before you went home.”

The Corner became a social hot spot not only for Sag Harbor locals but also visitors from as far away as New Zealand and Australia. Even the band Pure Prairie League, famous for the 1972 hit “Amie,” often played live at The Corner—which Mr. Gullong said angered village officials at the time, due to the band’s large tour bus blocking part of Main Street.

Mr. Smyth also used The Corner Bar as something of a job convention, with many young residents waiting tables and working the kitchen. It served as the first restaurant job for Aimee Webb, who would become Mr. Smyth’s stepdaughter after he married her mother, Margaret, nearly 10 years ago. On top of that, Jim and Margaret knew each other growing up in Sag Harbor.

“I’ve known Jim literally all of my life,” Ms. Webb said on Monday. “You’d probably find out that half of the population started their first job at The Corner Bar. It was an institution, Jim was an institution.

“He was always pretty pleasant and a very magnanimous soul,” she continued. “He took his time to really know people—and he remembered everyone. He knew who your parents were, where you came from, where you went to college. He knew all of these things about you, because he really invested in knowing a person.”

While he was a well-known man on land, he was captivated when he sailed along Sag Harbor Bay. An activity he often did with his father while growing up, sailing became a lifelong hobby for Mr. Smyth. More specifically, racing on his Evelyn 32-2 sailboat, named “White Lightning,” with local friends, including Derrick Galen.

“We raced every Wednesday evening—sometimes there would be weekend races,” Mr. Galen said on Tuesday. “We usually had six to nine people for a crew, a real great group of people. We won a lot of races. He enjoyed being out in the nature of the water.

“One time when we were out, and the sun was setting, he would look out and say, ‘What a wonderful place to be.’”

While Mr. Smyth enjoyed racing sailboats frequently, Sag Harbor was not as sailor-friendly in the 1980s. Mr. Gullong said that while local resident Bruce Tait had started Wednesday night sailboat races, the Sag Harbor Yacht Club at the time had no open slips for local sailors to keep their boats. One night in 1987, Mr. Gullong, Mr. Smyth, and a group of friends, including Mr. Tait and Nancy Haynes, had the thought of starting their own yacht club.

“There was nothing that really drew the community to the water at the time,” Mr. Gullong said. “Jim and Bruce really wanted to bring Sag Harbor to the waterfront—and the Breakwater Yacht Club really did that.”

By 1988, the Breakwater Yacht Club came to fruition as a nonprofit organization. It offered not only an outlet for sailing enthusiasts but also sailing instruction programs to the youth of Sag Harbor. With the Breakwater Yacht Club Community Sailing program, which started in 1989, the club taught hundreds of children every summer how to sail, giving them fun and insightful activities to do on the waterfront.

Taking all of his accomplishments in, Mr. Smyth was a personable man of action inspiring people to achieve their goals. Ms. Webb knew that quite well from one experience in particular: She said that when she applied for a special program in graduate school, problems with her transcript being provided led her to doubt that she would ever get in.

“He was, like, ‘All right, you know what, kiddo? If not this one, then the next one. You’ll get there,’” she said.

She then decided to check her email one more time before going to bed at midnight on a random Tuesday night. Sure enough, she saw her acceptance letter in her inbox and, in a moment of jubilant bliss, ran into her parents’ bedroom and told them that she got in.

“He got up out of bed, went downstairs and said, ‘We don’t have any champagne, but I think there’s a couple of Coronas in the fridge,’” she said. “So we sat down there around midnight, and he was so proud of me, and he was, like, ‘You know what? I told you you could do it—I told ya! I knew it would be all right.’”

Ms. Webb said that was an example of the primary lesson he taught her growing up: “I can, and so can you. Whatever it is that you’re focused on and you want to do, you can do. You just have to decide to do it.”

Though born and raised in Sag Harbor, he helped the Village of North Haven keep its small-town aesthetic as a devoted member of village government. According to North Haven Village Clerk Ed Deyermond, Mr. Smyth served on the Village Board for eight years and was deputy mayor for nearly four years. Mr. Smyth served as interim mayor for the village from April to June in 2013 after then-Mayor Laura Nolan resigned.

When Jeff Sander was elected mayor in July 2013, Mr. Smyth stepped down from the Village Board. He also had served on the village’s Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals.

“His services ran the entire gamut over here,” Mr. Deyermond said on Monday. “He had a strong knowledge of local issues and very well-versed. Him being here for most of his adult life, he really knew what it was like to be in this area, to live in and enjoy this particular area. He was always bringing that forward. His insight will be missed.”

“He was a great citizen of North Haven,” Mayor Sander said on Tuesday. “He was concerned with keeping the character of North Haven intact and preserving as much open space as possible. The issues he focused on were public services, the size of homes, clearing limitations, and control of the waterways. He had a good sense of what was the right thing to do and a great guy to work with.”

Mr. Smyth was laid to rest on Sunday after a special ceremony at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation Meetinghouse on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike.

Along with his wife, Margaret, and stepdaughter, Aimee, Mr. Smyth is survived by four sisters, Barbara, Debbie, Sharon, and Suzan, and five sisters-in-law, Suzanne, Joanne, Rhodi, Lisa and Fran. He is also survived by a stepson, Chad Webb; a daughter-in-law, Jessica Webb; a granddaughter, Georgia Webb; and several nieces and nephews.