Paul R. Rousseau's tendency to beat the odds made him a pretty optimistic person most of his life, said his son, James Rousseau.

Mr. Rousseau, who died Monday in Portland at age 83, signed up for the military when he was 17, joining the Army Air Corps in the midst of World War II.

He enlisted, rather than waiting to be drafted, for practical and patriotic reasons, James Rousseau said. "If you enlisted, you had more of an opportunity to do what you wanted," so he left St. Louis High School in Biddeford to pursue dreams of flying.

He became a pilot and beat the odds for a while, piloting 59 missions in B-26 bombers at a time when the loss rate for bomber crews was high. The odds eventually caught up and Mr. Rousseau's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Germany and caught fire. The crew bailed out, landing in a farming area.

Civilians captured the crew and were beating them when German soldiers arrived, James Rousseau said. "They were actually safer with the soldiers."

It was April 1945, James Rousseau said, and the Germans knew as well as the Allies that the war was almost over. So, eager to avoid problems once the prison camp was overrun by the Allies, "they were treating the prisoners well."

After the war, Mr. Rousseau returned to Biddeford, where he married Theresa R. Allie in 1946.

He worked for six years as a salesman at Day's Jewelers in Biddeford, James Rousseau said. His work caught the eye of a marketing representative for Allstate Insurance, which put him to work selling insurance in a booth at Sears.

Six years later, he started his own insurance agency, catering largely to the Franco-American population in Biddeford. Mr. Rousseau's parents, like many of French descent in Biddeford, spoke French around the house, so he could easily explain the benefits of various insurance policies, James Rousseau said.

Mr. Rousseau built the business, which is now run by his two sons and a son-in-law. He also indulged in his love for travel, marking a map on a pegboard in the basement to show the places where he had been, including Russia, China, Egypt and several countries in South America, James Rousseau said.

His interest in travel, his son said, came from "his sense of adventure, of doing something at least once."

A couple of heart attacks in his 50s slowed him just a little, but he had bypass surgery when he was 62. "He beat the odds there, too," his son said. "They said back then they were good for 20 years. He got 21."