Genny Smith

{{short description|American publisher and editor}}

Genny Smith (1922 - March 4, 2018) was a publisher and editor of guidebooks about the Eastern Sierra Nevada and the Owens Valley of California, United States.{{cite web|url=http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/7097.php|title=Author Bio|work=Sierra East: Genny Smith, editor|publisher=University of California Press|access-date=2009-06-08}} Her writings about the history, geology and biology of the region had caused her to be dubbed "the Naturalist Queen of the Eastern Sierra".{{cite book |title=Mammoth from the inside: the honest guide to Mammoth and the Eastern Sierra |last=Bates |first=Colleen Dunn |year=2004 |publisher=Prospect Park Publishing |isbn=0-9753939-0-1 |page=229 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eR_aimpBfpsC&q=%22Genny+Smith%22&pg=PA229 |access-date=September 15, 2011}}{{cite web |title=Genny Smith: 1922 - 2018 |url=http://thesheetnews.com/2018/03/09/genny-smith-1922-2018/ |publisher=The Sheet |access-date=30 July 2019}}

Starting in 1958, Smith lobbied against a Trans-Sierra Highway starting at Minaret Summit near Mammoth Lakes, California.{{cite news|url=http://thesheetnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/The-Sheet_10.01.16.pdf|title=Love the Wild Sierra? Thank Genny Smith|work=The Sheet|date=October 1, 2016}} Smith and other residents of Mammoth worked with Norman Livermore to convince Governor Ronald Reagan to cancel the road in 1972.{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/depo/learn/historyculture/trans-sierra-highway.htm|title=Trans-Sierra Highway|publisher=National Park Service}}

She received a B.A. degree from Reed College in 1943.{{cite news|url=https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/2018/genevieve-hall-smith-1943.html|title=Genevieve Hall Smith ’43|newspaper=Reed Magazine|date=June 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.liveoakpress.com/publications.html|title=Genny Smith Books on the Eastern Sierra|work=Our Publications|publisher=Live Oak Press|access-date=2009-06-08|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090823155419/http://www.liveoakpress.com/publications.html|archive-date=2009-08-23}} She a resident of Cupertino, California,{{cite web|url=http://www.theforum-seniorliving.com/images/downloads/focus_fall_2003.pdf |title=Adventuresome Hiker and Author Genny Smith |work=Focus on Retirement Living |year=2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716234724/http://www.theforum-seniorliving.com/images/downloads/focus_fall_2003.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-16 }} while spending her summers in Mammoth Lakes, California. She was formerly on the board of directors of the Mono Lake Committee.{{cite web|url=https://www.monolake.org/images/2006annualreport.pdf|title=2006 Annual Report|publisher=Mono Lake Committee|year=2006}}

Smith received the Andrea Lawrence Award from the Mono Lake Committee in 2017, for her guidebook writing and work in preventing the trans-Sierra road.{{cite web|url=https://www.monolake.org/today/2017-andrea-lawrence-award-presented-to-genny-smith/|title=2017 Andrea Lawrence Award presented to Genny Smith|publisher=Mono Lake Committee}}