TERREBONNE and LAFOURCHE Parishes, La.

OBITUARIY for SMITH, PAUL STEELE 
  
Submitted by: Louis Lavedan

Published in Houma Today & The Daily Comet from May 13 to May 15, 2017

Died: Tuesday, May 9, 2017

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SMITH, PAUL STEELE 

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Paul Steele Smith, 98, born May 19, 1918 enter eternal rest May 9, 2017. 

He was an aviation pioneer, U.S. Coast Guard Commander, retired, and was a pilot 
of amphibious aircraft as well as helicopters. Paul was the last surviving 
member of the first class of helicopter pilots in the world, studying under its 
inventor, Igor Sikorsky in 1942. He held license #18.

Paul was stationed in Houma during WWII, where his squadron of Grumman Widgeons 
successfully hunted German U Boats in the Gulf of Mexico. It was here that he 
met and married Anne Marie Hebert. Over the course of his career, they were 
stationed in New York, California, Mississippi, Florida, Hawaii, Texas, and 
Alaska. 

After serving 25 years performing Air-Sea rescue, he retired from the Coast 
Guard to his wife's home town of Bourg. Following his retirement in 1965, he 
flew for Petroleum Helicopters and later taught Celestial Navigation at 
Terrebonne Vocational Technical High School and the Louisiana Marine and 
Petroleum Institute. 

He was preceded in death this past January by his wife of 73 years, Anne Marie 
Hebert Smith; and is survived by three sons, Michael, Dale, and Gary; and three 
grandchildren, Adrian, Pierre, and Simone Smith.

A memorial service will be held at St. Anne Catholic church in Bourg on the 
occasion of his 99th birthday, Friday, May 19, at 10:30 a.m., 

followed by interment in St. Anne Catholic church cemetery.

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