Paul L. Wyckoff 1952-2024 • Atascadero News

On By Vaseline

Paul L. Wyckoff of Seattle, WA, passed away in the quiet morning hours of April 23 after each of his family members had a chance to say their goodbyes. Paul grew up in Seattle, but visited the United States, attending Holderness Boarding School in New Hampshire, serving as an Army medic in Alabama, attending the University of Denver, Co., and completing 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 farm in Paso Robles, California, for fifteen years before moving the family to Seattle in 1993.

In 2017, he married Lesley Chapin. Paul started his career as a fisheries biologist raising catfish before moving into television and then telecommunications. He owned the Talk Shop, where he sold telephones and helped small-town Americans improve their home communications systems (think switching from a party line to a private line). When he moved to Seattle, he switched from analog to digital networking, helping to design and wire major buildings for Seattle’s digital transformation.

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 take family and friends along for the ride. He loved being outdoors, hiking, backpacking, and fly fishing, but his greatest love was skiing, and he was damn good at it! From large resorts to small local mountains, Paul sought out the undiscovered corners to find the last powder turns and shared them with family, friends and his fellow powder hounds at SOYP. Raised with a philanthropic ethic, Paul was instrumental in founding Corazon Contento, a special needs school in Granada, Nicaragua, and gave both time and money to charities he valued, including the Greater Northwest Multiple Sclerosis Society, St. Joseph’s School, and Hamlin Robinson School. He has served on nonprofit organizations, given to local and global charities, and donated his time to help design and install network and technology infrastructure upgrades at nonprofit organizations. He spent one day a week building houses as a “volunteer hammer blow” with Habitat for Humanity.

Paul is survived by his four daughters Christy Wyckoff, Ashley Folkestad (husband Justin Folkestad), Lauren Sellen (husband Patrick Sellen) and Catherine Wyckoff, his wife Lesley Chapin Wyckoff, his mother Ann Wyckoff and five of his sisters and their husbands, Martha Wyckoff (husband 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 be held at St. James Cathedral, Seattle, on Monday, May 20, 2024 at 12:00 noon. A Celebration of Life will follow the service. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King & Kittitas County.