A method of designing an output feedback compensator for vibration control of a flexible smart cantilever beam based on its reduced order model is presented. By retaining the first two vibration modes the state space model is obtained from a smart structure Finite Element Model (FEM). A reduced order model is obtained by retaining the first vibration mode. It has been shown that an output feedback compensator can be obtained for the smart structure model from the state feedback gains designed from its reduced order model. It has also been shown that if the compensator is placed in the closed loop with the higher order system, it guarantees the closed loop stability. As the states are not needed for feedback, the method is simple and can be easily implemented.