Tim Smith

Tim Smith, who bought the advertising and design firm Skidmore Studio and kept its doors open during the recession by moving it to downtown Detroit in 2011, has died, the company's president said. He was 54. Smith, who also was the firm's CEO, died Tuesday night from "a cardiac arrest incident," Skidmore President Drew Patrick said. Smith in 2016 published the book Dare Mighty Things: A Field Guide for Millennial Entrepreneurs. His agency in recent years specialized in marketing to the millennial generation. Smith bought the agency outright from Mae Skidmore, daughter of late owner and founder Leo Skidmore, in 2009. He had been hired to oversee the agency's client diversification in 2001, then acquired a 10 percent equity stake in 2005 and became president in 2007. Smith moved the firm in 2010 from a loft space in Royal Oak to nearly 10,000 square feet on the entire fourth floor of the Dan Gilbert-owned Madison Building at 1555 Broadway St. — from which Smith's corner office overlooked nearby Comerica Park. Under Smith, Skidmore's business model shifted to working directly for clients, a change in strategy that kept the agency afloat when the recession was claiming small ad firms. Among Skidmore's clients in recent years were Dave & Buster's, Halo Burger, the Detroit Tigers, Expedia, Regal Cinemas, DTE Energy, Quicken Loans/Rock Ventures, Weingartz, Chrysler, The Sam Bernstein Law Firm, Crain Communications Inc., Level One Bank, Detroit Regional Chamber, Detroit Jazz Festival and TechTown. It has done pro bono work for Detroit Public Schools. On the agency side, Skidmore has done work for Doner, Campbell Ewald, Team Detroit, The Mars Agency, McCann and Leo Burnett. Smith, a New Baltimore native, was hired at Skidmore in 2001. Before that, he'd led the marketing and advertising departments at Grant Thornton, Plante & Moran, and Village Green Cos. He graduated from Anchor Bay High School in 1981 and CMU in 1986. A fan of the Detroit Tigers and Bill Murray movies, Smith is survived by his wife, Colleen, and sons Hayden and Harrison.