Paul Edward Morin 1922-2010

MORIN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 2/20/2011 at 23:48:24

Sioux City Journal
15 December 2010

SIOUX CITY -- Paul Edward Morin, 88, of Sioux City. Here let us remember with gratitude, the hilarity, generosity, talent and earnest good will of Paul Morin, gone from our sight Dec. 10, 2010, at a Sioux City hospital following a brief illness. Paul was a man who liked to organize his own program, and did so with courage, creativity, drive and a nearly super-human will to work.

Memorial services will be 6 p.m. Thursday at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel, with the Rev. Merlin Schrad officiating. Burial of the cremated remains will be at a later date in Calvary Cemetery. Visitation with the family will be 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home. Condolences may be sent online to www.meyerbroschapels.com.

Paul was born May 27, 1922, in Elk Point, S.D. He started his formal education at the country school in Elk Point. He later attended Sioux City Public Schools and graduated from Central High School in 1940.

In the U.S. Army, Paul served from October 1942 to October 1945 as a heavy truck driver, landing on Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion with the 121st Combat Engineers, going into the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne with the 101st Airborne Division and supporting the liberation of the concentration camp at Buchenwald. While deployed in England, Normandy, Northern France, the Ardennes, the Rhineland, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and Germany, Paul earned five Battle Stars and the Silver Battle Star.

After his discharge, Paul returned to Sioux City and on his first day back, he went to work for the U.S. Postal Service as a railway postal clerk, a position he held for 17 years. He continued to work as a clerk at the Sioux City Post Office Terminal for 18 years, giving 35 years of service in total to the post office and retiring in 1977. While working full time at the post office, Paul also developed his own lawn installation and maintenance, and devoted his great energy, cordiality, fierceness and attention to detail to the business for the remainder of his life, turning the management of the business over to his son, Mike, in his later years, but continuing to participate with enthusiasm. Paul was one of six charter members of the Siouxland Golf Superintendents' Association, an organization that has grown to include more than 100 members. Paul served as secretary for six years, and was elected to honorary membership of the association in 2000.

Paul was an avid golfer, playing often and well throughout his life on golf courses across the country, shooting his age every year since he was 69. Paul was often to be seen ferociously improving his swing, hitting a bucket of balls on the beautiful acreage he designed and maintained in Sioux City.

Paul was always a dedicated family man. He married Charlotte Beacom on Nov. 27, 1947, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and they raised three children together, Mary, Barb and Mike.

Paul's unshakeable integrity, grounded and confident humility, compassion, humor, generosity, hard work, irascibility and unargueable common sense, improved the lives of his family and friends every day, and will continue to inspire us in memory.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Charlotte Beacom Morin; his daughter, Mary Ann Morin Tordsen, her husband, Craig Tordsen of Sioux City and their daughter, Maarja Jolberg of Tampa, Fla.; his daughter, Barbara Morin of St. Paul, Minn.; his son, Michael Morin and his wife, Julie Branum Morin and their sons, Sean Morin and Samuel Morin of Sioux City; his sisters, Madonna Morin Cunningham of Sioux City, and Vergene Morin Fessenden of Germantown, Tenn.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Fred Morin and Ernestine LaCroix Morin; and his brothers, Ralph Morin and Raymond Morin.

The Morin family wishes to thank the ambulance crew, intensive care, palliative care, and the staff at Mercy Medical Center, Hospice of Siouxland and Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church for their excellent care and support.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Siouxland Golf Superintendent Association scholarship fund.