By Kelly Murphy-Redd
Tested, stalwart and dedicated, are words describing Paul Singleton. A fixture as ambassador at the Fort Walton Chamber of Commerce, Paul has attended 1,650 ambassador events including local business ribbon cuttings. How does he know? He consults a little black book where records of such things are kept. Keeping track began years ago when ambassadors turned in hours to quantify service to the community.
You may know chamber ambassador Paul Singleton, but not his story.
Paul was raised in North Carolina, one of six children. His father was Chief of Police, worked in a defense plant, and served in the North Carolina National Guard during WWI. At age 7, Paul’s father caught him lying and put him in jail. This lesson had a lasting effect on Paul.
His father later became an invalid and a sharecropper. Paul worked shifts at a local paper mill while a senior in high school. With no available support from family, he enrolled in East Carolina University. There he met Anne George, from Richmond, Va. They married in 1955.
He enlisted in the Air Force as a junior in college. On graduation night, after two years of Aviation Cadet School, Paul was asked if he was married. He couldn’t lie and said yes. Cadets were not supposed to be married. Paul didn’t graduate.
Re-enrolling in East Carolina University (ECU) in Air Force ROTC, Paul graduated in two years. In the second year, he had a teaching fellowship. During the break between junior and senior years, he went to ROTC Summer Camp, becoming the Cadet Commander. Paul returned to ROTC at ECU and served a term as Cadet Commander. After graduating as a Distinguished Military Graduate, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1958.
Paul served in the Air Force as a Special Ops officer. He was a staff navigator for the 6315th Combat Operations Group in Okinawa from 1962 to 1966. He taught ROTC at the University of Southwestern Louisiana from 1966 to 1969 and attended gunship aircrew training in Ohio. During his time in Vietnam, Paul remembers being replaced on a 14-man gunship just before takeoff. The plane was shot down and only one man survived.
Paul was chief of aircrew training at Hurlburt Field from 1970 to 1976, and attended and taught at the U.S. Air Force War College in Montgomery, Ala., from 1976 to 1981. He was again stationed at Hurlburt as part of the 16th Special Operations Squadron from 1981 to 1984 and served in Grenada from 1982 to 1984.
A Lt. Colonel with 32 years of service, Paul retired from the Air Force, but not from active life.
He served Okaloosa County as a member of the executive committee for the United Way from 1984 to 1985, the Democratic Committee from 1987 to 1989, and President of the Guidance Clinic (now Bridgeway) in 1983. Paul was named mental health volunteer of the year.
He also served as chairman of the American Heart Association from 1986 to 1991, member-at-large of the Concert Association from 1987 to 1991, Deacon of the 1st Presbyterian Church from 1988 to 1990, and member of the governing board for the West Florida Community Care Center in Milton, Fla., from 1988 to 1990. He was on the YMCA board for 20 years.
If that wasn’t enough, he was Lt. Governor of Kiwanis from 1992 to 1993, a trustee for the Florida District Foundation in 1994, and named Kiwanian of the Year in 1977 and 1993. Paul has been an ambassador for the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce since 1984, the Fort Walton Beach Coin Club secretary/treasurer from 1984 to 1989, and treasurer of the ROAIC Investment Club from 1985 to 1988.
In 1990, Paul went to see Buddy Bracken at the Okaloosa Clerk of Courts. He told Buddy, “I need a job so I can get weekends off.” He was hired as an administrative assistant and public relations representative. He officiated swearing-in ceremonies and marriage ceremonies, wrote the newsletter, and created the first telephone directory for county workers to unify the county.
Paul has many stories, but here are a few.
Public services were scarce in Okaloosa County in the early days. In 1971, Kiwanis created a hearing test program. People would call the telephone company and if they couldn’t hear certain words or numbers recited to them over the phone, they were told to see a doctor.
Once a twelve-year-old boy was caught stealing a preacher’s car in Pensacola. Paul offered to have the boy stay at his house. When the boy left, Paul discovered his son’s coin collection was gone.
As a deacon of the 1st Presbyterian Church, Paul served as property chairman. He says he was a unifier there as well, because whenever he did anything to the kitchen, all the women got mad.
Paul loves serving the community, because he receives more than he gives. Paul and Anne were married for 63 years before she passed away in 2018. He has recently been inducted into the Distinguished Military Service Society at East Carolina University.
