Paul was born July 25, 1937 in Clinton, Michigan. The youngest child of Amos DeWitt and Josephine Adelia (Haldy) Wilson, he graduated from Clinton High School in 1955 where he played football and basketball as well as marched in the band as a French horn player.
Paul graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1959 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in 1964 with a M.S. in Electrical Engineering. He married Janet Ilene Fitzgerald on June 18, 1961 in Lakewood, Colorado; they divorced in January 2003.
Paul served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1959 to 1966; he joined the Continental Oil Company in Ponca City, Oklahoma in 1967, retiring in 1999 from Conoco, Inc. The family moved from Oklahoma to Houston in 1973 and he lived in the family home until 2017.
Paul was affiliated with the Texas Board of Professional Engineers, the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi.
Paul travelled extensively for Conoco to Asia, Africa, Europe and South America during his 32-year career. After retiring, he traveled throughout the United States and the Alsace-Lorraine area of France and Germany in pursuit of genealogical documentation on his ancestors and oral family stories from living cousins. He self-published The Descendants of Richard Wilson and Julia Ann Stuck in August 2016. The companion publication on the descendants of Johann Friedrich Haldy and Elisabetha Louisa Lindemann remains unfinished.
Paul also enjoyed working as a train engineer at the Hermann Park Railroad, volunteering with local non-profits and spending time with his beloved canines Lucky, Pretty Girl, Max and Buddy.
Perhaps more than anything, Paul will be remembered most for his unique voicemail message: Please leave me a message. Tell me who you and what you want. Most people need a lifetime to answer the second question, but you only have a minute after the beep. Good luck!
He is survived by his children, Karlene Elena Masters and husband Steven Jay of VA, David L. Wilson and wife Isabelle of CA; brother, Lynn Harold Wilson of AZ; nieces, Judy Dianne (Wilson) Hartwig and husband Allen Don of MI, Patrice Dawn (Wilson) Redman and husband Les Duane of MI, Diane Marie Sell of FL, Cheryl Lynn (Wilson) Jamison Brecko and husband Kenneth of CO, Marie Michelle (Wilson) Flores and husband Luis Fernando of AZ, Nicole Midori Wilson of CA; nephews, Gerald M. Sell and wife Lori of AZ, Daniel Sell, John Allen Sell of IN, Scott Eric Wilson of CA, Michael Koji Wilson of AZ; many grandnieces, grandnephews, great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews; and the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of numerous Wilson and Haldy cousins.
He was preceded in death by his parents; sister, Annabelle and brother-in-law Richard Sell of MI; and brother, Arnold DeWitt and sister-in-law Phyllis Dean (Cameron) Wilson of MI.
Donations in Paul’s memory may be made to the Red Cross Blood Bank or the 12-step program of your choice.
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