In the book world, the backstory of the Gibbs Smith publishing company — that it published beautifully designed books from a renovated barn on the founder’s family property in Layton — made for a pretty great yarn. Better yet, of course, is that its mythical founding story happens to be true.
Smith co-founded the company with his wife, Catherine, on the strength of his University of Utah master’s thesis, a biography of Utah labor leader Joe Hill that has remained in print for nearly 50 years. Smith, who continued making daily trips to the office even after the company was sold three years ago to its 43 employees, died Saturday from complications of an injury.