He was also one of the most accomplished journalists of his generation. In a career spanning more than 40 years, during which he was reporter, columnist, news executive and editor, he worked for several Australian newspapers and covered some of the world's biggest stories from five continents. He was a foreign correspondent for AAP-Reuters, The Australian , The Age and this newspaper, winning the Graham Perkin Award for Journalist of the Year in 1982. He also contributed much to the rich folklore of Australian journalism, notably in the matter of lunch expenses. He was a portly adventurer.
Accountants still blanch at the memory.
Yet for all the fun he had, the jests he shared, the titles he collected, Smark will be remembered in the trade he loved as a man who wrote about the passing parade, not with cynicism, but with intelligent scepticism. And with flair. In full Smark's style 'Yet for all the fun he had, the jests he shared, the titles he collected, Smark will be remembered in the trade he loved as a man who wrote about the passing parade, not with cynicism, but with intelligent scepticism.