Richard Paul Obituary

Richard "Dick" William Paul passed away peacefully on July 7th, 2025, after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease.

Born on July 26, 1942, in Harvard, IL to Merle and Florence Paul, he was raised in Harvard and graduated from Harvard High School in 1959. After finishing high school, he went on to earn his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees of Science in Political Science from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. It was on the first day of freshman orientation that he met Jean who would become his life partner. They wed in DeKalb in August of 1963. After finishing his schooling, he accepted a teaching position at R.O.V.A High School in Oneida, IL, where he and Jean moved in August of 1965. For almost 30 years, he was THE history department of R.O.V.A. High School, teaching classes such as American History, American Government, World History and Civics, just to name a few. As a rabid Chicago Bears football fan, he had a "shrine" dedicated to "Da Bears" in the corner of his classroom. During each football season, he was well known for predicting both the R.O.V.A. High School and Chicago Bears weekend football scores each Friday by writing what he titled "Phriday's Phearless Phorecast" on the chalkboard of his classroom.

During his tenure at R.O.V.A., he also served as Junior Class Advisor, likely selling more fundraising frozen pizzas, and helping to plan and then chaperone more proms than any teacher in R.O.V.A. history. While teaching at R.O.V.A., he began volunteering with the local ambulance service as a driver. This sparked his interest in emergency medicine, which led him to take classes and train to become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). After earning his credentials, he went on to work as an EMT, full-time during the summers and on an on-call basis on nights and weekends during the school year. In the early 1990's, when offered early retirement from R.O.V.A., he stepped away from teaching high school and went on to study and earn his credentials to become a paramedic. He then was hired and worked full time as a paramedic for Galesburg Hospital's Ambulance Services while also teaching EMT classes at Carl Sandburg College. After several years of working as a paramedic, he was hired by Galesburg Cottage Hospital into an administrative position as the Ambulance Services Coordinator, where he worked until 2014, when he chose to permanently retire.

He and Jean were very active in their various church families throughout their lives, the most recent being First United Methodist Church in Galesburg.

He is preceded in death by his wife, Jean, and is survived by his daughters, Beth Paul-Russell of Seattle, WA, and Julie Millard of Rockford, IL and his son, Scott Paul, as well as grandchildren, Leo Kernagis, Alex Paul, and Annabelle and Lucas Russell.

Cremation rites have been accorded. A celebration of Richard and Jean's life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the family or directly to The Michael J. Fox Parkinson's Foundation at www.michaeljfox.org Hurd-Hendricks Funeral Homes & Crematory is assisting the family with their wishes. On-line condolences and/or expressions of sympathy may be sent through www.hurd-hendricksfuneralhome.com