Paul L. Wyckoff of Seattle, WA, passed away in the quiet morning hours of April 23rd after each of his family members had a chance to say their goodbyes. Paul grew up in Seattle but sampled the US, attending Holderness boarding school in New Hampshire, serving as a medic with the Army in Alabama, going to college at the University of Denver, Co, and finishing his degree in fisheries at Humbolt State, CA where he met his first wife, Susie Wyckoff, and mother of his four daughters. They lived on a ranch in Paso Robles, CA, for 15 years before bringing the family to Seattle in 1993.
In 2017, he married Lesley Chapin. Paul began his career as a fisheries biologist raising catfish before moving to television and then to telecommunications. He owned the Talk Shop, where he sold telephones and helped small-town Americans improve their in-home communication systems (think moving from a party line to a private line). Upon moving to Seattle, he pivoted from analog to digital networking, helping design and wire large buildings for the digital transformation across Seattle.
Friends and family describe Paul as larger than life, a life force, the life of the party, indomitable, always up for adventure, and always wanting to bring family and friends along for the ride. He loved being in the outdoors, hiking, backpacking, and fly fishing, but his greatest love was skiing, and he was damn good at it! From big resorts to small local mountains, Paul would seek out the unexplored corners to find the last of the powder turns, sharing them with family, friends, and his fellow powder hounds at SOYP. Raised with a philanthropic ethic, Paul was instrumental to the establishment of Corazon Contento, a school for special needs in Granada, Nicaragua, and he gave both time and funding to causes he valued, including Greater Northwest Multiple Sclerosis Society, St. Joseph’s School, and Hamlin Robinson School. He served on non-profit boards, gave to local and global charities, and donated his time to help design and install network and technology infrastructure upgrades at non-profits. He spent one day a week building houses as a “volunteer hammer slammer” with Habitat for Humanity.
Paul is survived by his four daughters Christy Wyckoff, Ashley Folkestad (spouse Justin Folkestad), Lauren Sellen (spouse Patrick Sellen) and Catherine Wyckoff, his wife Lesley Chapin Wyckoff, his mother Ann Wyckoff and five of his sisters and their spouses, Martha Wyckoff (Spouse Jerry Tone), Sheila Wyckoff-Dickey (Charley Dickey), Susan Pohl (John Pohl), Theiline W. Cramer (Steve Romein) and Alison Milliman (Glen Milliman). He was preceded in death by his father, T. Evans Wyckoff, and sister, Betsy Wyckoff.
A funeral mass will take place at St. James Cathedral, Seattle, at noon on Monday, May 20th, 2024. A Celebration of Life will follow the service. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King & Kittitas County.
