Paul Leon Koehmstedt

On May 24, 2008 Paul Koehmstedt's tired heart finally stopped after a long battle with congestive heart failure. Doctors and friends did not believe Paul would live as long as he did, but his strong will and resiliency proved them wrong and gave all of us many extra years to enjoy with him.
Paul was born in Seattle, Washington on September 21, 1923, to George and Mittie Belle Koehmstedt of Lexington, Washington. He spent his youth swimming and fishing in the Cowlitz River with his brother Alvin. They were "All American Boys" and though some incidents of neighborhood mischief remain unsolved, they were good, hard working kids. School, the outdoors, and working on the family chicken ranch with his parents, Al, and sisters Helen and Marilyn occupied most of Paul's time.
Pearl Harbor changed everything and after graduating from Kelso High School in 1941 Paul worked locally and then later in the war effort for Boeing and Douglas as a riveter. In 1943 he joined the Army Air Corp (13th Air Force 370th Bomb Squad. 307th Bomb Group.) where he held multiple positions including radio operator, mechanic, and door gunner on a B-24 Liberator. While in the "Long Rangers" he took part in thirty-nine combat missions in the South Pacific. These were harrowing missions with tremendous loss of life, including many of Paul's friends. He always said that "the real heroes are the ones that never made it back." His passing on Memorial Day weekend will always remind us of his patriotism and true love of his country.
Paul excelled at solving problems. One of Paul's favorite reflections was one where their bomber group spotted a "Kongo Class" enemy convoy in the water and scored direct hits with bombs, which seemed to have no effect. After landing, Paul took it upon himself to drive to a navy base on the other side of the island where he traded whiskey, a very valuable commodity indeed, for some armor piercing bombs that the Navy crews had. "The Navy always had better bombs." On the next mission, they found the convoy again and hit the battle cruiser with the new bombs. Paul saw the ship explode, rise up out of the water, and promptly begin sinking. That convoy, which had been headed to Leyte, was turned away.
The next day, an officer rode into camp in a jeep demanding to know who was responsible for trading whiskey for bombs. Paul, thinking this was trouble, and not wanting somebody else to take the blame, admitted to his deed. The officer promptly pulled out twice as much whiskey as Paul had traded and said "Here, I hope that repays the interest on that loan." This and many other stories of life and death in the South Pacific never got old to those of us who were fortunate enough to hear them.
Paul was honorably discharged in June 1945 as a technical sergeant and awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters, a presidential citation with one star, the Asiatic-Pacific ribbon with four battle stars, the Philippine Liberation Medal with one Bronze service star and the Good Conduct medal --almost everything except the Purple Heart. And that is where he considered himself a lucky man. Paul returned to the Northwest and began College at Oregon State College. After the GI bill ran out he roofed houses while going to school. He had a work ethic that many of us today could not meet. Paul enjoyed learning and after his Bachelor's degree he found a fascination with chemistry and earned his Master's Degree in chemistry (1951).
After initial research jobs at GE (Richland 1950-53) and Boeing (Seattle1953-67) where he proved to be a very valuable employee, he settled in at Battelle Laboratories, PNNL Richland 1967-1993. There he had a long and an absolutely stellar career. Paul was gifted with an extremely intelligent mind which made it seem effortless to find creative solutions to complex problems. Paul was responsible for numerous inventions and patents. Later in his career he enjoyed working on DOE & DOD special projects. Once again, we never tired of hearing his stories of now declassified military inventions and projects. Paul always said "I guess I was one of those lucky people that really enjoyed going to work and doing my job." And he did it very, very well.
As a young man working for Boeing, Paul met Phyllis Iversen while she was attending Nursing School at the University of Washington. Phyllis was from Poulsbo, Washington. They fell in love and married on July1, 1956. In July 2007 they celebrated 51 years of marriage.
They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and Paul and Phyllis have raised three extremely intelligent and successful children. Bryan is a supervisor for King County Water District #49; David is a pharmacist in Poulsbo and Karen is an attorney in private practice in Kennewick, Washington.
After Paul and Phyllis retired in 1993, they moved to Poulsbo where Paul enjoyed fishing, catching shrimp, and especially crabbing in the Hood Canal with his friends, children and grandchildren. Paul's creative mind didn't rest in retirement. He invented artificial crab bait that proved irresistible to crabs and allowed him to catch more crab than everyone else. He also enjoyed many huckleberry picking trips to Mt. Adams with family and friends. Paul and Phyllis shared years of wonderful holiday and family visits in their Poulsbo home.
Paul is survived by his wife Phyllis and children Bryan (Wanda), David (Kathy), Karen (Curt), brother Alvin (Agnes), sister Marilyn and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins. He was preceded in death by his parents
George and Mittie Belle Koehmstedt and his sister Helen Weiss.
At his request there will be no formal service. At our request a memorial celebration of his life in the Koehmstedt style will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please make memorial donations to the Vinland Lutheran Church Scholarship Fund PO Box 2134 Poulsbo, WA 98370, or the Poulsbo Fire Department in the name of Paul L. Koehmstedt 911 NE Liberty Rd Poulsbo, WA 98370.

Our lives will never be the same. Our hearts are broken. The world has lost one of the greatest of "The Greatest Generation." Paul will be greatly missed by friends and family.
Goodbye Paul.