Paul Arthur Daniels

June 5, 1949 - February 25, 2021

Paul Arthur Daniels was born on June 5, 1949 to an Austrian-American nurse, Ruth Frances Molkes, and a German-American farmer, Lawrence Peter Daniels, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The third oldest in a large Catholic family, eventually he was joined by an additional seven siblings, ten in all—four sisters: Mary, Susan, Ann, and Linda, and six brothers: David, Paul, Peter, Leonard, Ted, and George. He came of age rollicking around the country fields, forests, and hillsides of the then-quiet valley that encompassed many acres of the family farm. There he acquired a deep love and appreciation of nature, along with a strong taste for adventure. Growing up in a big family with minimal resources led him to seek joy in simple pleasures, such as sledding on old ski hill abutting the property in the winter or losing a summertime day up Baird's Creek fishing, catching crawdads, or languishing in the cool pools until ushered back homeward by the dinner bell and evening farm chores. From a young age, he learned how to work hard, spending early mornings and evenings helping milk the cows or tending the big truck garden alongside his stern but loving father. Of course, being an older brother, there was plenty of good mischief and tricks played upon the siblings for fun as well! That said, he was also a shenanigans leader, (mostly) trusted protector, and figure of heroic stature to his younger brothers and sisters well into adulthood. This was only the beginning of the great adventures that would become his legacy in life. As a young man, upon graduating from high school in 1967, he followed in the footsteps of his older brother, David, whom he admired greatly, and decided to become a serviceman. He became a merchant marine, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard, and was stationed in various ports across the globe. Eventually, he landed on a remote outpost called the Rock of Ages, becoming one of the last guard of lighthouse keepers to tend the old light before its automation. Here, he was situated miles out from the nearest land, Isle Royale of Lake Superior, thus beginning his lifelong love of this inland sea along whose shores he would return to raise a family. Always a gypsy at heart, travel and adventure were a continual quest for him throughout his twenties. He spent time with a couple of his brothers working on sword fishing boats in the Gulf of Mexico, tried out the surfer life in Hawaii, and fell in love for a night with a beautiful woman in Japan who didn't speak his language except through their gaze. With his beloved Dad and brothers, he traveled up the winding Alaska Highway, and throughout the streams, mountains, and wilderness valleys of Montana—forever searching for the perfect fishing hole. Returning from all these ramblings, his stories captured the imaginations of the younger generations of our clan for decades to come. In between his travels, there were days spent on the old hippie homestead in Fox Coulee with his brothers, dabbling further in the bohemian lifestyle, living without phone, running water, or electricity. With just an old clawfoot tub out back, a cellar filled with gallon jugs of hard cider, a banjo, flute, guitar or two, and a cribbage board, they found ways to pass the time, including hours spent regaling tales of the open road and the dreams that seem to be the lifeblood of this clan! Then came his first long-lasting love, Deborah Gerould, a strong-willed gal and spunky free-spirit breaking away from the confines of the East Coast, who would capture his heart and tame his restless soul, at least for a little while. So, he gave up life on the road and high seas for a quieter, rooted existence pursuing the lessons in life that could only come from bringing up a family of his own. Paul and Deb married in 1978 and brought five children into the world in the years 1978-1989: Sarah Azure, Fern Sylvia, Lucas Christopher, Jesse David, and Abigail Grace. The family spent its early years living in close proximity to his parents in central Wisconsin, renovating an old farmhouse with his Dad, getting into the fur trade, trapping for a living, and continuing to develop his skills as a woodworking craftsman. During this period, he also spent extra hours in the pursuit of higher learning, completing two certifications at Nicolet College in 1978-1979—one in Log Cabin Construction and the other in Soil Percolation Testing. He also went on to complete an associate's degree as a Land Surveying Technician in 1980 at Nicolet College and Technical Institute, as well as another in Civil Engineering at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in 1987. Once again, though, his wanderlust roused and he decided to move his family north to Lake Superior country, where they would eventually buy a homestead on 40 acres in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, to start anew in pursuit of the good life, close to the earth and with ample fresh air and water to see through the upbringing of his growing brood. No stranger to hard work, he spent his days maintaining an ample supply of firewood for the long, hard winters, developing acres of gardens and orchards, raising chickens for eggs, hunting and fishing to put good meat on the table, beekeeping, maintaining several trails about the acreage, and spending countless hours each spring in a little sugar bush, tapping the maples trees for the family's yearly supply of maple syrup. Our Dad was still not too shy to have fun, though, and spent plenty of time with his kids building tree forts, putting up rope swings and zip lines through the pines, making diving boards and docks to create a summer haven at the pond for wondrously hot days, bush whacking and getting us lost all over the north woods, winter camping in the backyard, kayaking throughout the Apostle Islands, and windsurfing on the big lake to name a few of his many playful pursuits. His health was extremely important to him and he had a remarkable level of dedication to maintaining his physical fitness—a well-rounded diet of whole, organic foods and a strong rejection of western medicine, instead believing in his own ability to heal himself through a life of pure discipline and self-restraint in lifestyle practices. He loved music and books. On the wall, always hanging close at hand, were his banjo and guitar. He had an ample library with works by Thoreau, Thomas Merton, Krishnamurti, the Nearings, Earnest Hemingway, and J. R. R. Tolkien, to name a few. He was quite fond of philosophy, ecology, nutrition and eastern religions, with a focus on Zen Buddhism and Taoism in his later years. When his children were young, he was a grand storyteller, spending months building upon one story, weaving elaborate yarns for us each night at bedtime. An avid learner, in 1992 he completed an Associate of Science degree at Gogebic Community College. Once his children were well into their teen years, and some already out of the house, he chose to go back to college once again, earning his Bachelor of Science degree in surveying at Michigan Technological University in 2000. He then went on to work many years as a surveyor in the wilderness lands of the Upper Peninsula, eventually moving west to work for the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service in northern California, Idaho, Nevada, and finally Alaska. Even though he tended to be a lone wolf, maintaining connection with his family of origin was always important to him and there are many boxes of letters with which to prove this long-lasting commitment to his clan. One of his deepest regrets was moving further away from his beloved Dad, for whom he deeply cared and had the utmost respect. After his father's passing, he forever carried with him the sadness of the loss. At times, he would reflect on his strong wish to simply sit in the presence of his Dad once again and to seek comfort in the wisdom of his counsel. Until the end, he was a dedicated son to his mother and, in his own way, always made sure she knew how much he loved and still needed her in his world. Solitude was very much a priority for Paul, though in his later years, after the end of his first marriage and spending several years alone, he finally chose to once again find lasting love. He met Carol Houck, a beautiful, sophisticated woman from the West Coast, in 2005. They were married in 2008 and together spent many years adventuring and living life in Upper Michigan, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Nevada, and Alaska. She was the last great love of his life. Our Dad spent his final years, after a sudden decline in health and diagnosis of ALS and Frontal Temporal Dementia at age 67, under the close and loving care of his daughter, Fern, near her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then with his son, Jesse, on the island of Maui, where he spent his last, peaceful months in the tropical sunshine and ocean air. Until the last, he was still hiking and enjoying outdoor adventures with his family, even though he had begun to lose touch with the reality he had always known. Paul took his final breath on February 25, 2021, at age 71. He is survived by his five children: Azure, Fern, Lucas, Jesse and Abigail; five grandchildren: Birch, Acorn, Zephyr, Arlo, and Alora; three brothers: David, Peter, and Leonard; four sisters: Mary, Susan, Ann, and Linda; as well as many nieces and nephews, many who have known his larger-than-life stories and young-at-heart antics. As his grown children, we cannot help but feel that our time with him was cut short. But he has left us with hard-won wisdom and the ability to think critically about the world and those around us. All that's left is a sense of thankfulness to have known him and that he took the effort away from his wild rambling freedom to foster in us those things he held dearest. Some of us can still hear his words and quiet introspection, missing him over the years his mind became a new frontier that he would explore alone, and as the father and brother we had known for so long was no longer there with us in spirit even as his body continued to dwell upon the earth. At times his hard, stoic shell fooled some. Those of us tied to this man knew that he wasn't always an easy soul to understand or be close to but, no matter the distance between us, his life force and willingness to really work at comprehending what it means to be fully alive and to know oneself in this world was contagious. And we strived to be awakened by his insatiable urge to push the limits of human potential—to never resist forging one's own way through the thicket of life's self-inquiries or look for a solid way to reach the top of one last mountain on the horizon….if only to peer beyond to the next great unknown, and only then get a glimpse of our true selves within the boundless mystery. To leave you all, we would like to share a few quotations that he loved and that we feel get closest to the essence of is legacy: "The portionless who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh." -Thoreau, from “Civil Disobedience” "It is in the still silence of nature where one will find true bliss." -J.J.C. "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a-flying; And the same flower that smiles today tomorrow will be dying." -Robert Herrick “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms...” -Thoreau, from Walden