Paul W1GUH SK

Sad news... Paul W1GUH passed away Sunday May 24 after a 3 year battle with cancer.
Paul was not very active on the air these past several years, he did operate from Greenwood Lake in Sussex County, NJ until the late 90s with an Eico driving a homebrew 4-1000 amp, but after getting a divorce he moved into an apartment in Manhattan. He continued to operate mobile and portable until maybe 2 years ago. Paul was a software engineer with Loral, Northrup and other defense contractors and an M.I.T. graduate. In addition to radio, Paul was an accomplished guitar player and photographer. Paul helped me move into my Saratoga QTH and also attended my wedding at Boston's Old North Church in 2003.

I received the following e-mail last night from Jeff K1NSS, a mutual friend of ours...

Warren,

Paul died today in hospice at Mary Manning Walch nursing home on the upper east side of Manhattan, peacefully and with dignity. His former wife Linda messaged me the sad news late this afternoon. The last I saw him was in his room there, later last week, along with Linda and a old friend from his days at LORAL. At that point he was still sitting in bed, having periodic trouble with some pain and more trouble with his particular pain killer cocktail which was a work in progress, more troublesome because it made him feel so loopy. The nurses and doctors were very solicitous and they continued to adjust the mix and dosage to keep him as comfortable as possible. It was difficult for him to speak, and he had gotten hard to understand, so he urged us to chat with each other and he listened, which we did for a few hours until he nicely asked us to leave him alone for awhile, which we did. Since then Linda had been checking in and last she saw him was yesterday, when he was finally lying down and uncommunicative, but the nurses said he was conscious, so Linda gave him a hug, and his last contact was with her in a nicely appointed, quiet top floor room. Perhaps a week ago he was still practically barricaded in his 4th floor apartment and finally let Linda and his sister Joan in, where they discovered it was no place for anyone to live, much less someone in his condition. I had been down a couple of times in the preceding weeks to take him to appointments, but he refused to let me in his apartment no matter what I said. You know Paul. Not many days later Linda and Joan showed up, pressed the issue, got in the door, contacted a social worker on his case, and got him moved to the nursing home all in a day, thank goodness. They pretty much wrapped up his affairs and arranged for a service at the nursing home chapel, but I haven’t heard yet when that it is. Linda and Joan asked if I had any idea what to do with his ashes, and I said I would spread them near a waterfall not far from me in the Catskills, a beautiful place he showed me some years ago on a photo excursion we made one day. That’s about the extent of what I know right now.