Ex-Grenada Governor General Paul Scoon passes on at 78

Former Grenada Governor General Paul Scoon. PHOTO/File

Paul Scoon, who was Grenada’s governor general during the U.S. invasion of the small island in 1983, has died in his Caribbean homeland. He was 78.

In announcing his death Monday, Grenada’s government did not give a cause. But Scoon had long had diabetes, and friends say he died at his home in the community of St. Paul’s.

Prime Minister Keith Mitchell described Scoon as a “fearless man.”

He was the British monarch’s representative in the country from 1978 until 1992. That made him the longest serving governor general in Grenada since the island was granted independence in 1974.

Scoon helped establish an interim government after 7,000 U.S. Marines and Army paratroopers invaded Grenada and toppled a post-coup military government.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press