SERVICE SET FOR EX-COUNCILMAN PALMDALE MAN FLEW SUCH PLANES AS U-2 AND SR-71 AS TEST PILOT.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- A memorial service will be held Saturday for Tom Smith, a former Palmdale councilman and test pilot who flew such aircraft as the U-2 and the SR-71. Smith died Sunday. He was 72.

The memorial service will be held at 1p.m. at the Halley-Olsen-Murphy Memorial Chapel, 44802 Date Ave., Lancaster. Smith's ashes will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

``Our thoughts and prayers go out to Tom's family,'' Mayor Jim Ledford said. ``He will be greatly missed. Tom played a major role in the development of the city when he worked on the general plan during his time on the City Council.''

Smith was elected to the City Council in April 1986. During his single term, he was involved in preparations for Palmdale's general plan, a document that guides the city's development.

Ledford credited Smith with helping launch his own political career by getting him appointed to the city's Planning Commission.

``You knew where you stood with him,'' Ledford said of Smith. ``He was pretty direct in his approach.''

Former Councilman Joe Davies also remembered Smith for his direct approach.

``He was certainly a fine colleague on the council,'' Davies said. ``He was honest, aboveboard and straightforward.''

Bob Toone, who served as Palmdale's city manager for 20 years before opting for retirement last year, said Smith was on the first council he served.

``He was one of the finest gentlemen I ever worked with, a great councilman and a great patriot,'' Toone said.

Smith was born in 1934 in Chicago and attended high school in Iowa. He joined the Air Force in 1953.

Smith's military career included attending the test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base in 1965, serving as commander of the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft flight test program in the late 1960s, and serving as the chief test pilot and commander of the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance test force in the early 1970s.

Smith also served a tour in Vietnam, flying more than 100 combat missions in the F-4 Phantom.

After retiring from the Air Force, Smith stayed active in aerospace, serving as executive director of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and briefly as a test pilot with Fairchild Corp.

In lieu of flowers, Smith's family asks that donations be made to the Society of Experimental Test Pilots' Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 986, Lancaster, CA 93584-0986

james.skeen@dailynews

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