"He didn't suffer fools gladly, and pretty much everyone was a fool."
He was often grumpy and abrupt, but they said that was just the outer shell of a kind and gentle person.
He was remembered as a physically small man, who dressed in black, smoked constantly and whose darting eyes saw everything. He was a nonconformist, hated bureaucracy and loved his cats.
His shows and direction taught generations of young people theatre skills.
"In a few weeks I'm coming to Wanganui to give a master class in performing and directing comedy. Most of what I'm going to say, I learned from David," his protege April Phillips said.
She's now an actress, singer and producer, with her play Stiff performed internationally.
Mr Smiles was born in 1935 in Patea. His father was a clerk and his mother was a teacher who encouraged his love of music, language and drama. He went to primary school in Patea and then New Plymouth Boys' High School.
After school finished, he moved to Wanganui to work in the Commercial Bank as a clerk.
He had dreams of being a concert pianist but got involved in theatre instead.
During a spell in England in the early 1960s he became a professional actor in children's theatre. He carried that on when he returned to Wanganui a few years later, forming Children's Art Theatre (CAT) and taking travelling shows to 700 lower North Island primary schools. Then he inherited money from an aunt and was able to fulfill his dream of establishing a professional theatre. It was the Four Seasons Theatre at Putiki, and opened in 1970.
Between 1971 and 1998 it produced 30 musical shows. Some were so popular that 20 per cent of Wanganui's population went to see them.
"His shows had extra dramatic punch, flair, colour, texture and modern choreography. Audiences loved it," fellow thespian Morris Richards said.
Mr Smiles worked hard and mentored hundreds of talents, young and old. Though he could be gruff and was something of a loner, the theatre was a haven for Wanganui's artists and eccentrics.
The fun ended for Mr Smiles when the theatre lost its regional arts funding. He became something of a recluse but was still involved in a few Repertory Theatre productions. Seven years ago he suffered a stroke, and progressed from Wanganui's Summerset complex to Kowhainui Rest Home, before passing away on January 30.
His send-off had its own theatre, and included a film clip of Mr Smiles as a comic Sancho Panza in a production of Man of La Mancha and an opera piece sung by his cousin, Suzanne Campbell.
