{"id":28200,"date":"2021-06-23T17:26:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T17:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/06\/23\/merle-smith-first-black-graduate-of-coast-guard-academy-dies\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:17:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:17:47","slug":"merle-smith-first-black-graduate-of-coast-guard-academy-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2021\/06\/23\/merle-smith-first-black-graduate-of-coast-guard-academy-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Merle Smith, first Black graduate of Coast Guard Academy, dies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) \u2014 Merle Smith Jr., the first Black cadet to graduate from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2021\/05\/03\/president-biden-to-speak-at-coast-guard-academy-commencement\/\" target=\"_blank\">Coast Guard Academy<\/a>, has died, his family said. He was 76.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith died June 16 of complications from Parkinson\u2019s disease and COVID-19, his wife, Lynda Smith, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith commanded a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/07\/27\/legacy-lives-on-with-new-cutter-for-1st-coast-guardsman-killed-since-vietnam\/\" target=\"_blank\">cutter in Vietnam<\/a>, taught law classes at the academy in New London and retired from active-duty service with the rank of Coast Guard commander before joining the legal staff of submarine builder Electric Boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The academy\u2019s superintendent, Rear Adm. William Kelly, said in an email to the campus community that Smith \u201cserved as a role model for countless cadets, faculty, and staff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith, the son of an Army colonel, attended the academy as a member of the Class of 1966. In an interview with The Associated Press in 2012, he said he generally did not feel like an outsider during his years as a cadet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEvery now and then you would get something that would happen. Someone would make some remark somewhere,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the main, it was not a situation that I felt uncomfortable with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2016, the academy honored Smith with a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of his graduation, and last year it announced plans to rename its officers club after Smith. In a congratulatory letter, members of the class he graduated with noted his \u201cunflappable demeanor\u201d during his service Vietnam \u2014 where his service was honored with a Bronze Star \u2014 and his role as a pioneer for diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"991\" height=\"596\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6.-Smiths-50th-Anniv.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-56831\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6.-Smiths-50th-Anniv.jpg.jpg 991w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6.-Smiths-50th-Anniv.jpg.jpg?resize=300,180 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6.-Smiths-50th-Anniv.jpg.jpg?resize=768,462 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 991px) 100vw, 991px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Merle Smith and Coast Guard Academy superintendent, Rear Adm. James Rendon, during the 50th anniversary ceremony of Smith\u2019s graduation from the Academy. U.S. Coast Guard photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn recent years, as the emphasis on diversity and inclusiveness grew within the Coast Guard, you became a beacon of inspiration within the Academy community encouraging others to strive for the unimaginable and forge new paths of greatness in the face of adversity and uncertainty,\u201d his classmates wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a cutter commander during the Vietnam War, Smith also became the first Black officer to command a U.S. warship in close quarters combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Smith\u2019s family said he did not consider himself a trailblazer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe was a really wonderful, wonderful man, who did his job as he saw fit to do his job, so therefore he considered all of his accomplishments as part of doing his job, as opposed to being a trailblazer or a pioneer,\u201d Lynda Smith told The Day of New London. \u201cHe was very self-effacing in his personality, very humble, very gracious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Merle grew up in Germany, Japan and elsewhere in the U.S. and attended Aberdeen High School in Maryland before entering the Coast Guard Academy in 1962. He graduated from the George Washington University Law School in 1974, according to the academy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a cutter commander during the Vietnam War, Smith also became the first Black officer to command a U.S. warship in close quarters combat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":56828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","left-column","home","middle-column","disaster"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[101,22,23,88,89,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1355],"class_list":["post-28200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-disaster","category-home","category-left-column","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4HN3YB6VI5CEJBCQFQHO365ZXI","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-navy\/2021\/06\/23\/merle-smith-first-black-graduate-of-coast-guard-academy-dies\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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