Major N. Kent Goldsmith

Military services for Maj. N. Kent Goldsmith, USAF, Ret., will be Monday, Sept. 17, at the Arkansas Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock. He died May 15, 2018, after an 8-day confrontation with cancer. He was 83. Survivors are his wife, Marilyn, of Conway; son, Steve; brother, James; grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

His life was a moveable feast. He embraced people, their cultures and politics around the world. Animals gravitated to him and he loved them all. Except spiders. He had low tolerance for green vegetables, arrogance, lies, abuse, and "groupthink", but was first in line for escargots or helping solve problems.

He was a cab driver in Paris and had 22 years of military service as a pilot (C-130s were his favorite) and diplomat. Decorations include the Bronze Star and a high Cambodian award rarely given to foreigners. After retirement he was a Beltway-bandit, then headed the U.S. subsidiary of a French aeronautical company. His volunteer hats included president of several organizations, yacht club commodore, mayor and municipal judge in Texas.

He lived life big, even marrying Marilyn in the upstairs lounge of Braniff's 747 Big Orange en route to London. He had hundreds of books in his library, loved Wagner and was always ready for something new. A standard phrase was, "BTDT. What do you want to do now?"

He moved easily among all strata of all societies, riding go-karts with the king of a mid-east country and flying Indira Ghandi in India, or drinking wine with French street singers and cab drivers. He welcomed anyone willing to sit on our deck and drink a glass of wine. If you hadn't heard all his stories, it meant you didn't visit often enough or stay late enough.

Cancer was a challenge, but he handled it like everything else -- he couldn't conquer it but he wouldn't let it own him for long.