Paul Dalbec

Paul Louis Dalbec, age 74, ceased his valiant fight against his fourth type of cancer on August 27th. He leaves behind a legacy of commitment to family and friends, and a heroic determination to live each day you have to your very best. He is survived by his wife of fifty-five years, Janice; his son Steve, his daughter Kathy, and five grandchildren Patrisha, Myriah, Paul, Steve, and Brittany. He has a sister, Arline Pieper who lives in Oceanside, California. He is preceded in death by his son Timothy Paul in 1996, and sister Eva Hirtler, and brother Leon Dalbec. In the winter of 2004, he would bring another gray haired lady into his life, Winnie. He talked to her a lot, perhaps more than a person should talk to a 70 lb. Weimaraner. He took her many places with him, he even said that he walked with her into an office store to order business cards one day. So when he could find no one talk to, Winnie would listen, she even 'talked' quite a bit to Paul. Paul grew up in the area he called Cherry Valley in Massachusetts, and told many stories about adventures he had growing up. One was of a multi-gear tractor his father had built that was made of several different truck engines and transmissions to create a machine that could haul cut logs out of the hills where they would be sawn into lumber for a house his father was building. He claimed he was driving this tractor when he was only 9 or 10 years old. His desire to play on the high school football team was not deterred by the fact he had no weight set to work with; he just made a sling for a calf and practiced weight lifting with the rope going through a pulley that was on a barn. As time passed, the calf grew and he was progressively lifting more weight. After graduating in 1951, he joined the Air Force and would go to Japan for 18 months. He married Janice in 1952, and would be stationed at Roswell, New Mexico where his first son, Steve would be born. He would be stationed at 12 more bases in fifteen years, finally ending up at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado in 1963. He taught in the photography department, and he served a tour of duty in Viet Nam from 1967 to 1968. He would retire from the Air Force in 1971 and go into real estate as an agent first, and then later get his broker's license. His love for conversing and meeting people was met when working in real estate. His advice was often sought as he would think through situations as though it was his own choice that he was making for himself. He seemed always ready and willing to help others even though it might impose upon his time or resources. He had a knack of talking to others and finding out a lot about people and what their lives were all about. He also had a way of roping other people into helping him with his projects and adventures, too! It was typical to have Paul call and tell you about his latest 'project' that he was going to start or was working on. He dabbled in stain glass, and cutting out wood figures with a band saw. He was gifted in designing and fixing things like building kitchen cabinets, a truck camper shell, tack box, screened in porch, cold frames, a backyard pond, and pergolas. He loved to grow fruiting plants like tomatoes, apple and pear trees, and grapes. He also like to make wine from his grapes, but most of it was best used as wine vinegar. The fruit of his friendships with people was evident in the last 3 é½ months while he was trying to recover from cancer surgery. His room could often be filled with several visitors so that it was standing room only, all coming to cheer on the warrior in his fight. The family often met for the first time, some of the people that he so frequently mentioned to us. The family would like to thank those friends for touching Paul's life and ours over the years, and for the many calls and visits they showered on him, especially during these last months. May God richly bless you for your kindness.