Graham 'Speedy' Smith: Tributes flow for hot dog man, volunteer worker

Mr Smith grew up in Dee Why before moving to Curl Curl, and he was well known to many people thanks to his connections with sporting and community groups.

He was a long-time volunteer of Dee Why Surf Club where he often mentored younger members. He played beach football and rugby league, was a boxer and a nightclub bouncer. Others knew him as the cheery hot dog seller outside one of the northern beaches most popular nightclubs.

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Mr Smith, 73, died surrounded by family at Port Macquarie Base Hospital.

His niece Lisa De Luca told the Northern Beaches Review that Speedy had lived with her family at Curl Curl for the first 20 years of her life.

"He was like my second dad," she said. "I remember days of not wanting to do my homework and he always made me do it.

"He had very strong links to the Tongan community, and when they landed [in Australia] and had nowhere to stay he'd help them out. I think we had six of them living in our house at one time."

For a decade, Mr Smith sold hot dogs to revellers outside Didi's nightclub at Brookvale Hotel. For some of that time, Ms De Luca worked alongside him to help put herself through her law degree.

"He helped fund me going to uni. He's helped fund a lot of the family, and people who aren't family, so they can better themselves," she said.

"He was just such a dear person, my mum and sisters are speechless, they can't believe he's gone."

Ms De Luca remembers her uncle as a kind, generous and highly intelligent man who was always reading books.

"He's also a contradiction because he was also a streetfighter," she said. "He didn't live a conventional life, he didn't believe in it. Whatever he had he gave away."

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Tracey Lake has been a close friend of Mr Smith since they first met in 1970, when they played rugby for Dee Why Surf Club.

"He was a one-off, a wonderful bloke, a very warm and generous human being," he said. "I refer to him as a one man Salvation Army, he'd literally give you the shirt off his back."

Mr Smith never got his driver's licence and was friends with some of the Manly Sea Eagles players back in the day. Mr Lake laughs when he reminisces that Speedy and rugby league immortal Bob Fulton once almost got in a fight at a Manly pub during after-game drinks.

"He was called Speedy because he was such a good boxer," Mr Lake said. "He was a fearsome street fighter, he was very quick with this hands. He was very strong and very feared, but he wasn't a bully or a thug."

When former Dee Why Surf Club president Patricia Newton married her husband Paul, Speedy was asked to be one of the groomsmen, she reminisced.

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"We got married at a church in Wahroonga and we went out to sign the register, and Speedy and the priest were talking about the horse they'd both just backed and that they'd just won on," she said.

Mr Smith moved to Port Macquarie 30 years ago and there volunteered with the local PCYC to help troubled youth. Often, he'd cook up meals in his own kitchen and package them up to give to kids in need.

A private funeral was organised by Mr Smith's family in Port Macquarie, but plans are underway for a wake to be held in the northern beaches. More details on the wake will be provided when they are finalised.

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