I am so lucky to share memories of Paul with his wonderful wife Lois.  We sometimes get to laughing so hard at his many antics and gags he would pull on one and all.  He will always remain in my memory as an outstanding role model.  Lucky for us his family keeps Paul's memories with  us.  

We were sad to hear that Paul passed away. Our thoughts go to Lois and the children with families.

Paul was my "American brother" since 1957, when I was an AFS exchange student in the Lauritzen family in Rock Island. He was then already married to Lois and had moved out. My first memory of Paul is when he came to visit. Standing in the doorway he said: "Look, Agneta!" and then he "fell" straight forward and only just before he hit the floor, he put out his hands to prevent an accident.

Another memory, from 1978, is a visit with Paul's family in Whitewater. Paul had a wonderful way with our boys, then 10 and 7 years old. He even let them drive his tractor in his woods. Unfortunately, the tractor crashed into the garage door.

The passing of time is inevitable, but memories remain.  

This gorgeous open-hearted family took me in and loved me as part of the family. One of the most special, memorable, influential years of my life.
Dad was so there for me, always positive and encouraging...just one example was biking 200 miles in 2 days, on The Tour Of The Mississippi River Valley, only possible with Dads amazing support, emotional & physical (a strong hand pushing me when I struggled).
So many treasured memories....constant teasing,fun at the woods,making wine & apple cider, Alabama & Colorado adventures, affectionate, strong pats on my shoulder, his happy feet & special way of eating nuts, visions of Dad lying on floor, legs up on a chair,after some super human feat & readying for the next. 
Mom and Dads 2 visits to New Zealand, my NZ family falling in love with them, our awesome trip around the country, shouting Tom & Libby to visit, then Jess & me....such generosity.
Dads dedication to sport & helping young people reach their potential. His inspiration to give everything 100%. Total devotion to Mom, his children & grandchildren.
I am forever grateful to this magnificent man.
Miss you Dad.
Sending you, Mom, Karen,Lisa, Jeff and all the family so much love.
Susan xo
 

Paul was my "big" brother and I especially remember the many adventures the two of us shared. We went on long bike rides together, an activity I still very much enjoy, and one that I have been able to share with him on visits as long as he was still able to ride. As teen-agers we went on long boat trips in the Mississippi River and the nearby Hennepin Canal using the small boat he had built.  In the canal, we frequently needed to portage the boat and its motor separately around the old abandoned locks, which added to the adventure.

He gave me lots of big brother advice and criticism which I didn't usually follow.

Paul played tricks on everyone and I was often the first guinea pig.  After trying out the trick on me, he would then ask me to be his accomplice in tricking others. He had to be the instigator because he was much better at keeping a straight and innocent face. Our home in Rock Island was built in the 1910's and was originally the home of George Borg, founder of the company which was later known as Borg-Warner which still makes automobile transmissions and power train components. The Borg family must have had a maid whose services were requested by means of a button in the floor under the dining room table.  Paul discovered this button and wired it up to ring the doorbell or alternatively another bell sounding like the telephone bell. We would be in the middle of dinner with guests and the telephone or doorbell would start "ringing" and "ringing". Guests would be perturbed by the ringing and wonder why the family simply ignored it.

Another favorite trick of his was to serve friends water in a dribble glass. The dribble glass had a tiny hole in the side near the lip that was almost impossible to detect. Whenever someone tried to drink from the glass, water would drip down all over the front of their clothes.  If they complained, Paul would take the glass and with a totally innocent face drink normally without dribbling - out of the side opposite the hole - to demonstrate that the glass was fine. 

Another trick that Paul came up with was a pencil with two strips of metal inserted all along one edge. he connected these strips to insulated wires  connected to an old automobile coil and battery hidden in a cut out book held in the same hand that held the switch to the coil. The wires would be hidden as they ran up one sleeve and down the other.  he would ask someone for their autograph and give them the pencil with his other hand. As soon as they grabbed the pencil, they would be given a high voltage shock. One day i was able to borrow it from him to go shock my friends at high school.

One Halloween when we lived in Glen Ellyn, IL, Paul found an old dress form, dressed it up in a costume and we put it on peoples' front porches.  We would ring the doorbell, yell "trick or treat" and hide in the bushes nearby.  Whoever came out would be startled by the strange adult statue and would usually go back in to call the whole family out to look.  By the time the family came out, the statue would have completely dissappeared into the darkness. Streets were dark in our town and it was easy to hide in the darkness. Once that same Halloween, the two of us were stopped by the police for carrying a "body" around. 

Paul was always the instigator of these escapades, and I, as little brother, was his accomplice. Every year, on an evening around the 4th of July, we would throw huge firecrackers down the barrels of the civil war cannons mounted in a nearby park in Rock Island. The cannons would make a loud boom followed by an echo when they were "fired" this way. He had an arsenal of huge firecrackers shipped in illegaly from out-or-state.  After "firing" the cannons multiple times, the police would come by and search for the perpetuators with their spotlights, but we knew every bush, tree and ravine in the park and were always able to escape detection in the darkness.  Around every 4th of July in the evening, Paul would say "it's time to go shoot the cannons again" and off we would go into the park with his ammunition. 

Paul would often organize the younger kids in the neigborhood to work for him, doing jobs his parents had assigned him to do. He made it fun for everyone and rewarded them in some special way so that they would be glad to work for him again.  His enjoyment of working with children carried on throughout his life and determined his career.

As a special education major, I joined the Student Council for Exceptional Children (SCEC) on campus. Following a meeting near one Christmas, my friend, Christie, and I were chatting with Paul and somehow we ended up talking about getting a Christmas tree for our apartment. Paul took us out to a state-owned vehicle and started driving into the country. I started getting a little nervous, but my friend assured me that we were fine.... until we turned onto a road/driveway and Paul killed the lights. By then, we both thought we had made a serious error in judgment. He continued to drive up the path into the woods before the car finally stopped. While I mentally considered our options, Paul produced a saw. Oh. My. Goodness. But then... he asked us to choose the one we wanted. Once we snapped out of it, we realized that he had brought us to his property....to choose a Christmas tree, which he promptly shoved in the back of the vehicle, and we held on to it as he drove us back to town and dropped us off at our apartment. Stunned.... grateful.... safely home...... with a memory to last a lifetime.  Thank you, Paul, for everything. 

Dear Lois and family
I am so sad to hear of Paul's passing. He was always our surrogate 'American Dad', a title we attributed to him following my sister Susan's AFS year with you in 1982. I was very lucky to holiday with you and my mum some years later and loved Paul's company and enthusiasm for activity and the outdoors!! I remember our big road trip from Wisconsin to Jackson, Wyoming. Thank you for letting me take a turn to drive us all on that journey, very trusting of you to allow a 21 year old Kiwi girl used to driving on the left hand side to get behind the wheel!! We got there in the end and had the most fabulous time with you eating waffles and playing pictionary!!
Such an amazing, talented, family man who will leave a huge gap in your lives. May you enjoy many rich and happy memories. Thinking of you all at this time,
With much love
Mandy (nee Johns) xxx 

Uncle Paul was always fun-loving and spirited - I wish I'd had more opportunities to spend time with him.  I remember the colorful tractor in his woods, pressing lots and lots of apples to make cider, and a bike ride through the Wisconsin hills to a historical community.  In 1999, I brought my daughter Kira to Greg's wedding in Chicago.  Kira was almost 3 and very shy.  Uncle Paul worked his magic and got Kira to dance with him.  He was a real charmer!

Many people have spoken this week about how often Paul served as a mentor to young people.  As his younger sister, I was probably one of the first kids to get that treatment.  Paul taught me how to play tennis.  A single park district tennis court was half a block from our house.  It was often busy, but the view from Paul's bedroom had a view of the court, so we knew when it was available.  Paul and I would head up there.  He experimented with a double forehand technique, which was trendy at the time.  It made sense to him, since he was a bit ambidextrous, but for me it was a failure.  The normal tennis game worked, and I enjoyed playing tennis with friends until my first joint replacement.

Paul also taught me table tennis.  It was good enough for me to reach the finals in several intramural tournaments.  I even won a few.  My fondest family ping pong memory was when my brothers invented elimination table tennis.  A group of 10-30 players formed two lines on opposite ends of the table.  Once you hit the ball you moved to the line at the other end.  Whenever you missed a shot you were out of the game.  As the number of players dwindled, the shots became more difficult.  The last two players stayed at one end, but had to spin around once between shots. 

I also played lots of driveway basketball with Paul coaching my technique.  Title IX came too late for me, but I still had lots of fun with sports thanks to my early expert coaching.


More important was that the time I spent learning sports from Paul were some of our best times together.  He was a terrific big brother.  You couldn't ask for a better one.  

I first met Paul in 1950 as I arrived at Augustana College from a farm in Iowa. Memories flow as I think about our many activities together.  He did enjoy pranks.  The first time I was invited to his home for one of his mother's delicious dinners, I was treated to one of the pranks his father played on me much to Paul's delight.  His father had a buzzer to call the maid in the floor close to his chair.  I was sure it was the doorbell ringing and could not understand why a member of the family did not go to answer the door.  It took me a long time, much to Paul's enjoyment, before I was finally clewed into what was happening.  Paul & I were both physical education majors and members of the PUG fraternity.  This led to an extremely close relationship and many enjoyable times together.  I remember the times he took me swimming in the Rock River even though I was not a good swimmer.  He loved to challenge me at times like this.  I did get back at him on a cold, winter day when he went home with me over the Christmas holidays.  I had ridden horses all my life so I immediately tried out his riding skills which were not up to some of his other skills.  His legs were so long that they almost touched the ground when he was on the horse.  Riding a horse was one of the few things I could do better than him.  Our fraternity had some outstanding sports teams due to skilled athletes like Paul.  I remember that we were undefeated in volleyball and I guess this is understandable when you have a spiker like Paul on the team.
He was also an outstanding badminton player and I felt honored to play number 4 on the team.  Of course, Paul was number 1.  Some of my most enjoyable moments was watching Paul play basketball where he set records that still wouldn't be beaten if basketball hadn't changed.  I was time keeper for the games so I had a wonderful opportunity to watch him play close up.  I remember one night when he set some record, perhaps a game or season record.  At the end of the game I set off the horn which caught the attention of the entire crowd so the announcer could share Paul's achievement that night.  What an athlete.  He definitely deserves to be in the Augustana Athletic Hall of fame.  We stayed in touch over the years although not as often as I wish we would have.  I saw him when he coached in Clarinda, Iowa and also when he would come to New Jersey to visit Karen.  I now look back with appreciation of our friendship over the years and the wonderful way he has impacted my life.  Paul was a unique and extremely talented person.  I feel privileged to have known him and to have been his friend. 
 

We are so sorry for your loss. We will remember the times we shared during our vacation at New Years Eve in Colorado and many visits to NJ. Hope all the wonderful memories of your father and grandfather will remain in your hearts. Love, Mirando Family

I am so sorry for your loss.  I remember Paul from when I was little and the Berry family used to go out to the woods with the Lauritzen family.  So much fun!  What I remember about Paul was his great love for children and him teasing relentlessly.  I loved going out to the woods and watching him work to make it beautiful and it was evident that it was something he loved to do.  I also remember picking gooseberries with him and riding on the tractor.  I seem to remember trying to ride a horse out there bareback and it didn't work out so well!  I loved seeing all of the photos that you posted.  Thinking of you all.  Sincerely, Kris Berry (Smith)