Paul Norman McGrath

1929 - 2019

Whitehall, N.Y. - Paul Norman McGrath passed away Sept. 6, 2019. He was born May, 18 1929, he lived in Whitehall, N.Y. before joining the U.S. Navy in 1946 as an enlisted man. He survived the sinking on the submarine USS Cochino (SS-345), which sank after a battery explosion off Norway on Aug. 26, 1949. (In the novel "Blind Man's Bluff" he is in the picture of the surviving crew, with the jacket marked ETC). He continued his Navy service; in 1958 he was certified as a Navy Nuclear Operator (Certificate #4) and promoted to the Naval Officer ranks in the same year under Captain Hyman G. Rickover at the Naval Nuclear Training Station in West Milton, N.Y.

Paul retired with 24 years of service as a Lieutenant Commander and wore both Enlisted (silver) and Officer (gold) Submarine Dolphins.

Paul continued his service as a technical assistant to Dr. D. Allan Bromley (5th director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy for George H. W. Bush) at Yale University's Sloane Physics Lab. During this time, Paul found and helped restored a Van de Graaff generator particle accelerator for physics research in Wright's lab basement.

Paul was a member of the Holland Club SubVets in Groton (which requires at least 50 years submarine qualification), a member of B.P.O.E. Elks in Westbrook, he volunteered preparing and delivering Meals on Wheels in Clinton, was a member of the Choral Club of Clinton, and a member of the St. Mary's of the Visitation Catholic Church, as well as a member of the choir as a tenor.

Paul is survived by his wife of 70 years, Josephine A. McGrath; and his five sons, (all of which are military veterans) John, Richard, Robert, Gary, and Daniel; his sister Joann Niles; and bother Alan McGrath. He will be missed by his six grandchildren.

A Mass of Celebration will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019, at St. Mary's of the Visitation Catholic Church in Clinton, burial in St. Mary's Cemetery will follow.