(February 16, 1919-March 16, 2005)

Paul H. Worden, 86, of 231 Stuart St., died Wednesday in Samaritan Medical Center. He had been a resident of Samaritan Keep Home for 18 months and had also resided at Whispering Pines Adult Home for six months.

Mr. Worden joined the City of Watertown Fire Department in 1947 as a fourth-grade fireman, was promoted through the ranks and became a first-grade fireman by 1950. He was promoted to fire captain in 1959 and retired from the department in 1976.

Born Feb. 16, 1919, in Norwood, son of Harold M. and Alice Colburn Worden, he graduated from Norwood High School in 1938 and from George Hall Trade School in Ogdensburg in 1939. As a young man he moved with his family to Watertown, where his father worked on the railroad. From 1942 to 1945 he was a staff sergeant in the Army Air Forces, serving in the European theater during World War II. He participated in the Tunisian campaign, the Naples-Foggia campaign and the Rome-Arno campaign.

He married Elizabeth E. Smith on April 3, 1945, at Stone Street Presbyterian Church with the Rev. T. Ashley Walker officiating. The couple spent winters in Florida from 1979 to 1990. Mrs. Worden, a New York Telephone Co. chief operator, died June 6, 1990.

Mr. Worden was a member of the International Association of Fire Fighters and enjoyed golf and baseball.

He is survived by a sister-in-law Mrs. Robert (Mary) Brown, Watertown, and a cousin, Jane Montgomery, Rochester.

There will be no funeral or calling hours. Spring burial will be in North Watertown Cemetery. Arrangements are with D.L. Calarco Funeral Home, Inc.

(From the Thursday, March 17, 2005 edition of the Watertown Daily Times, page D7).