Clinton Smith, first Oyster Bay harbor master, longtime East Norwich firefighter, dies at 91

Clinton Smith, a longtime aficionado of Long Island’s waters who served as Oyster Bay Town's first harbor master and headed the East Norwich volunteer fire department he joined at age 18, died April 26. He was 91.

Smith, who went by Clint, died of congestive heart failure at home. His wife and two daughters were at his side.

Clinton Stephen Smith was born in Manhattan on Aug. 18, 1929, to Stephen Smith, a chauffeur of Polish descent who worked in the Oyster Bay area, and the former Matilda Hakansson, who was from Sweden. The parents worked on the estate that is now the Mill River Club, a Gold Coast country club.

Clinton and his younger brother, Roy, were raised in East Norwich.

"He would hunt in the woods behind the neighborhood and bring back quail for his mother to prepare, quail on toast," the family wrote in a tribute.

Clinton graduated from Oyster Bay High School in 1948. He served in the U.S. Army, in the 2nd Armored Division, intelligence section, in West Germany from 1951 until 1953 during the Korean War, according to his family.

"Due to the growing threat of Russia during the Cold War, Dad’s job in the Army was to scout areas near the border. He had a driver and a radio handler," according to the family tribute.

He married Ann Pepin in 1955 at Christ Church in Oyster Bay. The couple lived in New Hampshire for a year, and he worked as a carpenter, but they returned to East Norwich and had resided on Vernon Avenue since 1962.

Clinton was a carpenter, arborist and worked for Oyster Bay Town from 1956 until he retired in the early 1990s. With his knowledge of the Oyster Bay Harbor, he was recommended and was appointed to the newly created position of harbor master in 1969. He was a member of the East Norwich volunteer fire department starting at age 18 until his death. He also was in the East Norwich Fishing Club.

"He liked to fish and would go out with his buddies deep sea fishing," according to the family tribute, which added: "He always felt at home being on the water."

The tribute said: "He enjoyed volunteering and he was one of the founders of the Christeen Oyster Sloop [Preservation] Corp where he helped [reconstruct] the Christeen and [replicate] the Ida May."

As president of that preservation group, which undertook the restoration of the Christeen, a sailing oyster sloop built in 1883, he told Newsday in 1999: "I love the sheer line on it," his voice trailing off in a swoon. "To me," said Clinton, waving a hand at the 30-plus-foot national historic landmark's black hull, "that's a sailboat." The original launch was in 1883 at Glenwood Landing on Hempstead Harbor.

In addition to his wife of 65 years, Ann Pepin Smith, he is survived by their daughters Jennifer Smith Loughlin of Oyster Bay and Tamara Smith Todd of Salisbury, Maryland; his brother, Roy Smith of Florida; and seven grandchildren.

"His grandchildren were always eager to go with their Pop-Pop clamming in Oyster Bay, looking for barnacles and periwinkle at low tide in Canada, or picking raspberries," the family tribute said.

The wake was held Thursday at the East Norwich Fire Company with military and firematic services, with the funeral Friday at Christ Church in Oyster Bay.

En route to the funeral, the coffin was placed on an East Norwich antique fire truck and driven to the bay, past the ships he worked years to restore, said Jennifer Loughlin, adding: "We said goodbye to the bay."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.