Paul A. Eby

Paul Alfred Eby born October 20, 1929, in Evanston, ILL, has gone to heaven to celebrate theNew Year with his wife and 3 of his children.

Paul was the youngest of four children born to Charles J. and Amillia A. (Weigand) Eby.

He graduated from Barrington High School in Barrington Ill. While in high school he was part of the high dive team and was a pole jumper\high jumper on track and field. After graduation he enlisted in the US Air Force and was stationed in Italy. While stationed in Italy he met and married his first wife Jean Reid in 1951. They eventually moved back to the U.S. where they had 7 children together, living in California and back to Illinois. They divorced after 11 years. Paul then met and eventually married Carolyn "Suzie" Sutton in 1966, who helped raise his first children and blessed him with 2 more. They eventually settled in Lake Geneva, Wi for many years before moving up north to officially retire. They were married for 53 years prior to her death in Jan 2020. In time he was given many many grandchildren, great grandchildren, and even a Great Great granddaughter, all who know him as “Grumpy”.

Dad always was a stubborn, arrogant, and proud man, very rarely accepting help from anyone. He made sure he was dressed in class, always wearing his western hat and western boots with his slacks and button-down shirts. As he got older the need for suspenders joined his wardrobe. He was your typical sarcastic grumpy old man, but he also had the creative, art, flirtatious charm about him. He knew how to talk to people and make them smile. He did many abstract paintings of his feelings, sketched caricatures of people, and wrote/told stories of his experiences (though we think some may have been embellished). He often would share his fascination and enjoyment of old airplanes, war planes, and barnstormers. His favorite music was the big band jazz listening to Dean Martin and the Rat Pack, Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman. You can always find him tap dancing around humming and singing music no matter his surroundings. Dad was unable to read a note of music, but would pick up his kids’ clarinet or sit at the piano and play along to what he heard. Another activity he enjoyed was fishing with his wife Suzie, whether it was from the shore or out on their little boat.

Dad loved to cook and bake. He even had some recipes published in cookbooks, though he wasn't much to follow recipes himself, just his gut and taste buds. He could never make the same thing the same way twice, always trying new combinations. Most meals came out amazing and tasty like his Eby burger baked on Texas toast, or his homemade from scratch spaghetti sauce. Some we were hesitant to try just on looks alone like black olives in a mustard potato salad, or stewed tomatoes in chicken chop suey. I remember him telling me that cooking was a creative endeavor. Baking, however, was a more precise science and recipes needed to be followed. Baking he took to another level with his cookies and pies, with his own flavors, fillings, and crusts. He was even the main cook/baker for Church of Holy Communion in Lake Geneva for their fellowship coffee hours and monthly free community meal, and other church events that may happen. Even in the last years of his life, he always made sure there was a dinner cooked and desserts baked for his wife, plus whoever else that just might stop by to visit.

Grumpy was a man of many jobs. He was a fire extinguisher technician for many years throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois for Fox Valley Fire Safety. He retired after the company was bought out, but this man doesn’t know how to sit still, so needed something more. He found odd jobs as a cook at George Williams College in Williams Bay, and Grounds Keeper at the Delevan Greyhound Dog Track.

He always said he was going to live to 100. (his grandfather lived to be 104). My reply to him was always...."is that a threat or a warning?". Obviously, he was a little short on his life, but not short on his living. And as his final wish (as stated in his hospital advance directives) Dad wanted "a celebration, a party, with his ashes placed into fireworks to fly one last time"

Just as my last words were always to him as I would leave my visits, I say now as he leaves this life… “You’re a good man Charlie Brown.”

A Celebration of Life service will be held at a later date.

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