Earl E T Smith

Earl E. T. Smith, a financier and sportsman who was Ambassador to Cuba when Fidel Castro came to power, died February 15 1991 at his home in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 87 years old. Sent by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as Ambassador to Havana in 1957, Mr. Smith resigned in 1959, soon after the fall of the Government of Fulgencio Batista. He contended that Mr. Castro could not have come to power without the aid of the United States. Mr. Smith received appointments from three other Presidents. He was named to the Presidential Commission on Broadcasting to Cuba by Ronald Reagan; Ambassador to Switzerland by John F. Kennedy, a post he declined because Switzerland was charged with United States relations in Cuba, and member of the War Production Board by Franklin D. Roosevelt A resident of Palm Beach for more than 50 years, he was Mayor of the resort city from 1971 to 1977. At the time of his death, he was board chairman of the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach and was honored in 1989 with the dedication of the Earl E. T. Smith Park. A member of the New York Stock Exchange for more than 60 years, he founded the brokerage firm Paige, Smith & Remick in 1929 and was senior partner until 1937. He served as director of various corporations, including the New York Central Railroad, the New York Dock Corporation, the Bank of Palm Beach and Trust Company, CF and I Steel Corporation, Lionel Corporation, Sotheby's and the United States Sugar Corporation. Earl Edward Tailer Smith was born in Newport, R.I., on July 8, 1903. He was a member of a prominent New York family and on his maternal side a direct descendant of William Tyler, the first lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. In 1980, Mr. Smith suffered a stunning defeat when he tried to buy the New York Mets for $19.1 million from the Payson family. After two months of fierce bidding, Doubleday & Company, the book publisher, won controlling interest in the team for $21 million. His first three marriages to the former Consuelo Vanderbilt, Mimi Elaine Richardson and Florence Pritchett ended in divorce. Mr. Smith is survived by his wife, the former Lesly H. Stockard; two daughters from his marriage to Ms. Vanderbilt, Iris Christ of Mill Neck, N.Y., and Virginia Burke of Palm Beach; a son, Earl Jr. of Brookline, Mass.; a stepdaughter, Danielle Hickox of Palm Beach; nine grandchildren, and 17 great-grandchildren.