Samuel Stanton Maxwell

Samuel Stanton Maxwell, 92, of Clermont, Florida was born on February 12, 1925 in Flora, Illinois. Upon the death of his father in 1929, Samuel moved with his mother and her family on a farm near Hebron, West Virginia. Following his graduation from high school in 1943, he volunteered for the U.S. Navy Reserve and spent the remaining years of World War II serving aboard the Destroyer Escort, USS Waterman DE 740. The ship experienced 20 months of continuous duty in the Pacific with eight operation stars to her credit and over 120,000 miles steamed. These operation stars were for the Marianas Operation, Western Carolines Operation, Leyte Operation, Luzon Operation, Two Jima Operation, Okinawa Gunto Operation, and Assaults on the Japanese Empire and supporting operations, and the Philippine Operation.

Following his discharge from the U.S. Navy Reserve in December 1945, Mr. Maxwell attended the University of Cincinnati on the GI Bill of Rights where he majored in botany. His lifetime career was spent with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. PPQ, APHIS while working throughout Pennsylvania and later in Florida. He and his family moved to Florida in 1981 to take advantage of a promotion. He retired from the USDA at Winter Haven, Florida in 1985 and later took a job as regulatory officer in the citrus canker program with the State of Florida Department of Agriculture. He had a second retirement from the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority at the Orlando International Airport where he supervised the sterilization of all foreign trash and garbage to prevent the spread of dangerous insects and diseases. He retired from there on March 1, 1995.

Mr. Maxwell was always a sports enthusiast both as a spectator and a participant. He was a tournament player in table tennis and competed in Pennsylvania and other northeastern states. After moving to Florida in 1981, he took up running and has been in more than 500 races including 30 full marathons (26.2 miles). His trophy room consists of 310 awards of which 85 are for first place. He has been the oldest runner in the last two Walt Disney Marathon as well as a number of other races.