Paul Scoon | Ex-Grenada leader, 78

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

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

Prime Minister Keith Mitchell described Mr. Scoon as a "fearless man."

He was the British monarch's representative on the former British colony from 1978 until 1992. That made him the longest-serving governor general in Grenada since the island was granted independence in 1974.

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