Kent Warner Smith

Kent Warner Smith June 16, 1941 to February 18, 2008

Founder of the Green Party of California, worked on the First Planetary Meeting of Greens, held in Río de Janeiro May 30th-31st, 1992 as a member of the the International Working Group of the U.S. Greens, created and coordinated the 1991 "CanaMex" conference at Earth Island Institute in San Francisco that led to the founding of the Federation of Green Parties of the Americas.

In January (1993) the Global Greens Steering Committee met in Mexico City and authorized the Global Green Bulletin, coordinated by Kent Smith of the Green Party of California; it was the first formal ongoing exchange of Green news on a global basis. Consisting of four pages, it had correspondents for each continent.

Kent Smith was a Green candidate for State and Federal Senate seats in 1992 and 1994.

Graduated from Stanford in 1964 with a BA in American History. He played for the Stanford Men’s soccer team and studied abroad in Italy. Kent then went on to earn an MA in History at the University of California, Berkeley in 1966 followed by a PhD in Diplomatic History, UC Berkeley 1972, successfully completing a dissertation on U.S.-Mexican relations.

As a graduate student, Kent was a leading organizer of non-violent resistance to the Vietnam War and a dedicated activist in the Civil Rights Movement. He served as the Field Secretary of the War Registers League in 1972 and the Academic Coordinator for the Peace Studies Program at Stanford in 1974. He also co-authored the U.S. history textbook, As It Happened. He taught History and International Relations at several institutions of higher education and MBA Marketing and Management in the Silicon Valley.

In the mid-80s, he moved to San Francisco and founded the Dream Training Institute. He was also executive director of the Association of Dreams.

He was among the early pioneers in organizing the Green Party globally, in particular between Canada, Mexico and the U. S. He is recognized as one of the founders of the Green Party of California. He attended the first state meeting of Greens in Fresno in 1989 with about two dozen others, and was one of the organizers of a meeting in Sacramento in 1990 where Greens decided to found the official Green Party of California.

In 1992, after more than 100,000 people were registered to the fledgling party, Mr. Smith accepted the state-sealed declaration from Sec. of State March Fong Eu for the Green Party. He ran for state and U.S. Senate in the early 1990's, garnering tens of thousands of votes. Mr. Smith also played a key role in the first Planetary Meeting of Greens in Rio de Janeiro in May 1992, and helped create the Federation of Green Parties of the Americas.

During the 1990s, he became president of the Nevada County local FCAT station producing and hosting several programs such as The Emerging Golden Age, The News Hour and the Monty Python-like comedy Mid Realities with friend Jerry Martin.

He authored the book People Magic: How to manifest the relationships you want.

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