P.T. Smith's a friend of Florence.Byline: Profile by The Register-Guard Name: P.T. Smith, 88, Florence Claim to fame: Pick one. He founded the Friends of Florence, which carts cancer patients daily to Eugene for radiation treatment, and was influential in persuading PeaceHealth to build a hospital in Florence. What's the P.T. stand for? Philip Thomas Philip Thomas may refer to:
Traveling's in his genes: Smith's father was one of the founders of the American Automobile Association American Automobile Association (AAA), federation of American automobile clubs, est. 1902. AAA provides a number of benefits to its members, including emergency road service; national and international travel assistance, e.g. , formed in 1920. When he died of streptococcus streptococcus (strĕp'təkŏk`əs), any of a group of gram-positive bacteria, genus Streptococcus, some of which cause disease. at age 31, Smith went to work, selling magazines and mowing mow 1 n. 1. The place in a barn where hay, grain, or other feed is stored. 2. A stack of hay or other feed stored in a barn. lawns to help his mother support the family. He's also intelligent: Otherwise the Army wouldn't have made him an intelligence officer, a career that spanned 30 years, through the Cuban missile crisis Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962, major cold war confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the USSR increased its support of Fidel Castro's Cuban regime, and in the summer of 1962, Nikita Khrushchev secretly decided to and the McCarthy era. "I think McCarthy went overboard," says Smith, who helped keep tabs on suspected communists. "I did what I was told to do." Sweet music: When he's not being a philanthropist, Smith likes to crank out crank 1 n. 1. A device for transmitting rotary motion, consisting of a handle or arm attached at right angles to a shaft. 2. A clever turn of speech; a verbal conceit: quips and cranks. a few tunes on the organ he just purchased - as soon as he can figure out how to program the darn thing. - Winston Ross If you know someone who would make a great subject for a Register-Guard Profile, send it to Jim Murez at jmurez@guardnet.com or P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440. CAPTION(S): P.T. Smith, an 88-year-old former Army intelligence officer, founded a group that transports cancer patients to Eugene. |
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