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Robert Burr Smith was born in Tacoma, WA, the son of the late Robert Marquette and Wylmarie Laura Smith, of Los Angeles, CA. He died on January 7, 1983, at the age of 58 of lung cancer.  BMA 1938 Most of his youth was spent in Los Angeles, CA. When he was 14, he was sent to Brown Military Academy [1938-40]. Family legend is that Burr and his best friend were playing German Nazis and his mother was so horrified, she enrolled him in BMA to teach him to be more patriotic. It stuck as he has been hailed by his colleagues as a true American patriot. Burr Smith was a distinguished soldier his entire life. After high school graduation, he joined the U.S. Army paratroopers in 1942 and was assigned to Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, made famous by Stephen Ambrose's book "Band of Brothers".  Burr Smith 1942 He survived WWII, jumping into Normandy on D-Day and through the Battle of the Bulge, earning two purple hearts. In the 1960's, Burr Smith received Special Forces training, and was a lifelong Army Reservist, rising to the rank of Lt. Colonel. In the late 1960's he was hired by the CIA as a paramilitary specialist assigned to the covert war in Laos where he worked for almost 8 years. His last position with the CIA was as their liaison officer to the newly formed Delta Force in the late 1970's-early 1980. Burr was an active outdoorsman, and his passion in the last years of his life was hang gliding. He is survived by his wife, Mary Jane Smith, currently residing in Santee, CA; three children, Christopher Scott Smith of Fresno, CA; Cynthia Susan Finn and her husband Tim Finn of Lodi, WI; and Sandra Ann Miller and her husband Steve Miller of Doylestown, PA; and eight grandchildren. Source: Susan Smith Finn "I always felt that my father was so classy, so disciplined and attributed it to his military school years. The men of Easy always say he held himself like an officer, always walking straight and tall and with purpose...[June 2005]". |