Trimble, Coast Guard officer and LCA leader, dies at 92
Paul E. Trimble, 92, former vice commander of the U.S. Coast Guard and head of the Lake Carriers Association, a Great Lake shipping group, died recently at his home in Palm Harbor, Fla.
A native of Agenda, Kan., Trimble graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1936 and earned a master's degree in business administration at Harvard in 1942. He commanded various Coast Guard vessels before becoming chief of staff and then second-in-command of the Coast Guard, having been promoted to vice admiral in 1966.
After retiring from the Coast Guard, he was in his second career with the Lake Carriers Association when the iron-ore freighter 'Edmund Fitzgerald' sank during a violent storm in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975. All 29 personnel on board perished.
That disaster prompted Trimble and the Lake Carriers Association to improve safety on the Great Lakes by upgrading weather forecasts, and urging that each ship carry enough survival suits for all crewmembers. He retired from the LCA in 1982.