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Paul M Smart

Oct 21, 2016

Paul M. Smart passed away on October 9, 2016 in Ft. Myers. He was born on January 6, 1929 to Paul and Frances Smart in Middleport, Ohio. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the U. S. Air Force. Trained as a radio operator, he served in various aircraft communications functions, including four months as a message center operator in the traffic control center on Okinawa Island.

He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Capital University and his Juris Doctor degree from the Ohio State College of Law, both with high honors.

In 1953, he joined the Toledo, Ohio firm of Fuller, Harrington and Seney, a fifteen lawyer firm primarily engaged in corporate law. During his thirty years with the firm, it grew to fifty lawyers. He had the good fortune to work in many specialty areas of the law, including real estate, corporate, antitrust, mergers and acquisitions, government regulation, public utilities, and labor relations. During his years of practice, he was active in legal profession organizations at the local, state and national levels, serving as president of the Toledo Bar Association and the Alumni Association of the Ohio State College of Law.

He became highly specialized in public utility law, and left the legal profession to assume full time responsibility as an executive in the electric utility industry. In 1985, he was elected President and Chief Operating Officer of Toledo Edison, just after the then-troubled Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant suffered a near disaster and was shut down. Under Paul’s leadership, the plant was brought back into service, and it received recognition for being one of the most efficient nuclear power facilities in the world. Later, he was instrumental in merging the Toledo Edison and Cleveland electric utilities into Centerior Energy Corporation, where he was a board member and held several executive positions.

He was involved in numerous community organizations in Toledo including: The United Way where he served as Board Chairman; Toledo Hospital; The Toledo Museum of Art; the American Red Cross; and especially COSI Toledo, where the failed Portside Festival Marketplace was converted into a children’s science museum.

After fully retiring, he and his wife Janice, established residency in Florida where they lived on Captiva and Sanibel Islands and became involved in a number of community organizations. He served as a board member and President of the Captiva Civic Association, a board member and Commodore of the Captiva Island Yacht Club, a volunteer at the Lee County Health System Healthpark campus and as a certified volunteer Medicare consultant under Florida’s SHINE program. He enjoyed tennis and boating, and he could be seen every day biking along San-Cap Road.

Paul is survived by his wife Janice, daughters Susan (David) Kienzle, Barbara (Chris) Mages, and Roberta (Greg) Roush; Janice’s children Karen (Jack) Pok , Brad (Kerrie) Brogan and Todd (Michele) Brogan and fifteen grandchildren.

A celebration of Paul’s life will be held at a later date. Memorials may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice.