Bob Smith remembered as hospitality industry icon
File photo / Jim Neuger
Bob Smith, former majority owner and Lighthouse Keeper at Sebasco Harbor Resort in Phippsburg, died on Sept. 6. He was 67.
Bob Smith, the longtime majority owner of the Sebasco Harbor Resort in Phippsburg who sold the business last May, died on Sept. 6. He was 67.
Smith, the resort's self-proclaimed Lighthouse Keeper, died of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. He was diagnosed on Memorial Day, when he was told he had a few months to live. He took the unexpected news with a sense of humor, declaring his intention to have the best summer of his life.
Friends and former colleagues remarked how the last few months of Smith's life overlapped with the summer tourist season that runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
"I will miss him and the life he brought," said George Casey, a group chair with Vistage, who knew Smith as one of the founding members of Casey’s first Vistage group nearly eight years ago.
"Bob was really the glue that pulled our group together," Casey said. "This is a group of CEOs and business owners I meet with every month to work on each other's issues. Two-thirds are business and one-third are personal."
One year, when the group travelled to Ireland at the invitation of retired UNE President Danielle Ripich who has a house there, Smith had arranged for accommodations at a nearby inn and acted as tour guide for the group. Smith also hosted an annual dinner for the group at his resort.
"He was always the consummate host," Casey recalls.
Smith, who was born in Winchester, Mass., is a graduate of Fryeburg Academy and the University of Southern Maine. In 2018, he was recognized by New England Inns & Resorts Association with the Master of New England Innkeeping Lifetime Achievement Award.
’Generous to a fault’
In Maine, Smith is revered as an industry leader.
"Bob was an icon in the hospitality industry," says Greg Dugal, government affairs leader at HospitalityMaine. "He influenced and supported so many people with their businesses or careers. He was generous to a fault and never met a cause that he couldn't or wouldn't support."
Dugal, who knew Smith going back more than 30 years, said that Smith spent a lot of those years on the board of the Maine Innkeepers Association, now HospitalityMaine, "and he would do anything for the organization."
On a more personal note, Dugal recalls trips with Smith to trade events in Washington, D.C., or New York City, and having dinner with Smith's daughters, Kelsey and Mallory.
"Bob and his daughters always made me feel like one of the family, and that family hospitality made Sebasco Harbor Resort the iconic destination that it was."
Smith exuded that same enthusiasm during an interview with Mainebiz in 2019, when he provided a tour of the property on a golf cart, stopping at the candlepin bowling alley and sharing an anecdote about a famous regular guest. He also spoke of how generations of families and some employees returned to the resort every year. The resort opened in 1909, and Smith became the majority owner in May 1997.
Last year when Mainebiz caught up with Smith to see how business was going, he mentioned how he and his wife Lori, a former nurse, had taken on extra duties amid pandemic-related workforce challenges.
"I've made more beds this year than I have in my entire career, and that's OK," he said.
Smith sold majority ownership of the Sebasco Harbor Resort last year to Giri Hotel Management, of Massachusetts, for an undisclosed amount.
A celebration of Smith's life is planned for DiMillo's on the Water in Portland on Oct. 21, according to his obituary.
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