Paul Madison Coleman
1917
- 2009
Paul Coleman was a music
educator who taught in Seventh-day Adventist schools in the Orient and in the
Pacific Northwest. He was also a skilled builder who oversaw the construction
of the Djakarta Evangelistic Adventist Center in Indonesia, organized
maintenance activities at Taipei Adventist Hospital, and oversaw the renovation
of Tsen Wan Hospital in Hong Kong, the latter two
activities happening after he retired.
Paul was born on a small farm
in McMinnville, Oregon on February 19, 1917, the older of two children and the
only son of William (Will) Madison and Minnie Iverson Coleman. Both he and his
sister, Lois, showed promise in music and began study at an early age. In both
instances, their music education was interrupted by the Great Depression.
Paul began playing trumpet
when he was eight years old, teaching himself on a hard-blowing cornet from
Austria that his father had given him. A year after graduating from McMinnville
High School in 1934, he left home to attend Walla Walla College, now
University, with $18 in his pocket, a few clothes, and his cornet. Although he
had not taken lessons until well into his teens, he was talented and had become
proficient enough as a musician to play in WWC ensembles and the Walla Walla
Symphony, as well as sing in the college male quartet.
Victor Johnson, WWC college
band and orchestra director who also had a music instrument store, took an
interest in Coleman and loaned him a trumpet, an improvement over the cornet,
but a poor sounding instrument. During a subsequent summer, he found work in a
cannery and was able to set aside $50 for the purchase of a better instrument.
He later recalled,
I
heard about a music dealer and storeowner who had recently retired and still
had some instruments in his home. I visited him and was amazed to find a
handcrafted Martin trumpet, a top-of-the-line instrument. When the dealer told
me he was asking $75 for it, I said, "Well, I guess I will have to work
some more." We continued visiting and as I was getting ready to go, the
dealer asked, "Have you got $50? If so, boy, you can
have it." I played on that instrument for the next 25 years.
From 1939 to 1940, Coleman
ran a bakery route in Portland. He also
married Lois Anne Smith, and then returned to WWC in 1941. He worked from 1942 to 1944 at the Naval Ship
Repair facility in Bremerton, Washington and then taught at Mt. Ellis Academy
for a year before returning to WWC, where he completed a B.S. in biology at in
1946.
For the next seven years, he
taught in Singapore before returning to the States in 1953 for a music teaching
position at Auburn Academy, near Seattle, Washington. Although now 36, he
decided to take lessons on the flute and clarinet, studying with the principal
chairs in the Seattle Symphony.
After seven years at AA,
Coleman took a position at Portland Union Academy, now Portland Adventist
Academy, in order to help a member of the family who was having difficulty at
that time. A year later he traveled to Indonesia, where he oversaw the
construction of the Djakarta Evangelistic Adventist Center. After three and a
half years there, he returned to the States with his family when political
problems placed them in danger.
From 1965 to 1970 he taught
music at Laurelwood Academy, near Portland, Oregon.
During that time he organized a woodwind ensemble using his four sons, whom he
had taught to play clarinet, as its nucleus. The ensemble became widely known
throughout the Northwest for both its facility and musicianship. During this
time they released Themes in Wood, a highly successful and popular
record.
All four of his sons would
eventually play in the Walla Walla Symphony, as their father had when he was a
college student. His twin sons, Donald and Ronald, played in the orchestra as
teenagers in the 1970s, and then again in the early 2000s. Seven members of the
Coleman family, including Paul's sister Lois and her daughter, Janice, played
in the Walla Walla Symphony, the largest number of musicians from one family to
play in that ensemble in its first hundred years. Ronald presently serves as an
adjunct instructor in clarinet at WWC.
In 1970 Coleman was invited
to be assistant plant manager at WWC, a position he held until his retirement
in 1978. At that time he moved to a farm near Gresham, Oregon. In 1988 he
traveled overseas to supervise maintenance activities at Taipei Adventist
Hospital and, in the following year, oversaw the renovation of Tsuen Wan
Hospital in Hong Kong.
Annie suffered a stroke in
1998 and was bedridden until her death five years later, on October 2, 2003, at
age 85. Paul was an active musician until his late eighties, organizing a brass
quintet in 1995 and often performing in it until 2005. He was residing in Walla
Walla at the time of his death on March 5, 2009, at age 92.
ds/2017
Sources:
Interview with Paul Coleman in 2008 and interviews with Donald and Ronald
Coleman in 2007; Obituary in the Walla Walla Union Bulletin, 19 March
2009; personal Knowledge. See biographies for Donald and Ronald Coleman and
Lois Coleman Hall for more information about the Coleman family.
Memories of Paul Coleman
Written by the
Coleman boys, Donald, Ronald, and Lewis,
and his sister, Lois
Hall
Paul Coleman
was born near Newberg, Oregon, on February 19, 1917, to Minnie Iverson-Coleman
and William (‘Will’) Madison Coleman. Will was a dairy farmer and
teacher. Minnie was a former teacher and housewife. When he was six years
old his sister, Lois, was born.
In the early
1920s the Coleman’s purchased a wheat farm of about 35 acres near McMinnville,
Oregon. There were no buildings on the land, so Will built a chicken
house and shop which became their temporary home. Next he built a
three-story barn to house the two cows and horses they purchased. They
planted fruit and nut trees and a large garden. Will taught at the
country school - so Paul's first teacher was his father. (Paul used to
ride his horse to school several miles away). In between doing chores and
teaching, Will built a three-bedroom house, which is still occupied
today.
They moved
in before it was finished, but it was a great improvement over the chicken
house. Paul loved living in the country, climbing the huge oak trees,
riding the horse, fishing, and swimming in the creek. He wasn't so fond
of weeding the garden and tending chickens.
The
difficult depression years were spent on this farm. The family survived by
canning food that they grew. They also canned the meat from one cow that they
slaughtered each year. The milk and eggs that they did not need were sold for
cash. With careful planning there was just enough money to buy one set of new
clothes and shoes for each family member each year. For Paul this was just one
new pair of coveralls and one pair of shoes each year.
When Paul
was about fifteen he saw his dad's cornet and tried to play it. His
mother had tried to teach him piano, but he wanted to play a horn. He
taught himself to play the old antique instrument, which was very hard to
blow. When he was sixteen he was invited to join the city band, led by
the town's justice of the peace. He was introduced to Sousa marches and
other military band music. He was even paid to march in the Fourth of
July parade. That fall he brought home an alto horn and taught his sister to
play it. She was very thrilled and became the youngest member of the band.
It was about
this time that Paul’s father purchased their first automobile, a Ford Model
‘T’. Paul also saw his first airplane at
this time, a ‘barnstormer’ stunt flier that came to the McMinnville airport to
put on a show and sell rides.
Paul was
baptized in a creek near the McMinnville Seventh-day Adventist Church. He
attended McMinnville High School, where he graduated in 1934. He yearned to
attend a Christian school where he could participate in social activities
outside of the Sabbath hours. (The public schools held all of their social
activities and football games on Friday nights and Sabbaths.)
He was
visited by a teacher from WWC who urged him to go to Walla Walla College.
His father wanted him to stay home, help him on the farm and attend Linfield
College. But Paul was tired of having to choose between having a good time and
listening to his conscience. At the age of eighteen he made the tough decision
to leave home and make his own way. (It was to be seventy long years before he
returned to visit that house again.)
Paul arrived
at the train station in Walla Walla (the building still exists on 2nd
Avenue) in 1935 with an old metal suitcase, ten dollars and his horn. He
needed a job badly. When he arrived at WWC, he saw a crew pouring
concrete and asked the supervisor for a job. He was hired on the spot and
helped pour the original sidewalk in front of the administration building. He
then registered for school, initially as a teaching major.
Paul
scrimped and saved, and by the second quarter he was able to buy a trumpet.
This became his joy because it was easy to blow. He made good progress and was
soon playing in the band and orchestra. It wasn't long before he found another
trumpet player and a trombonist and formed a trio. Many of their pieces
were arranged by his sister, Lois. He also sang in the men’s quartet with
Eugene Winters, Ken Fleck, and Ralph Whitehouse.
In 1937 the band went on a "booster trip" and played a concert at
Columbia Academy. He met his future wife briefly as he was hurrying to
get in place for the performance. Her name was Lois Annie Smith. He
barely noticed her. But Annie and her friend noticed him. Annie’s friend told
her that when she got to WWC she was going to ‘set her hat’ for him. Annie
jokingly said, "Tough luck. I’m going to be there a year before you
are!"
In 1938
Annie attended WWC. She and Paul ended up in the same science class together,
she as a pre-med student and he as a biology
major. Annie often wore a small Scottie dog pin and Paul dubbed her
‘Scottie’. (It was a name that was to stick for the rest of her life).
Paul had
been dating a girl named Margie and he used to take his trumpet over to the
dorm and from under her window played "Margie, I'm always dreaming of you,
Margie." A friend of Paul’s created quite a stir one night when he
stood under Annie’s window and played "I Must See Annie
Tonight!" Lois had always teased Paul about his girlfriends and he
took it good naturedly, but when she teased him about Annie, he got mad and
Lois got worried. "This is serious," she thought to herself.
Before the school year was over, Paul and Annie were engaged.
Like many
others in those days Paul had a problem. He owed the college money and didn't
have enough income to support a wife. There were no such things as school
loans. He decided to stay out a year and work. Annie's parents invited him to
live at their house. His future father-in-law loaned him the money to
purchase a bakery route and a delivery van. (Annie later revealed that her
father had said to her, "The best way to get to know a man is to wash his
clothes and see how long he can hold a job".)
Paul
excelled in sales, paid back the loan, and saved money. He apparently earned
the approval of Annie’s parents, for he and Annie were married on August 29,
1940, at Annie's parents’ home in Portland, across the street from the old
Portland Sanitarium. Elder J. L. Tucker of the Quiet Hour married them.
His sister, Lois, was the maid of honor. They were to use a cabin of a
relative for a honeymoon. When they arrived at the cabin in the woods,
they found that a friend had nailed a substantial barricade down the middle of
the bed. Paul put his carpenter skills to work and quickly solved that
problem!
Paul and Annie’s first home was in College Place and was a basement made into a
home. (They called it the "Honey House," as it had been used
previously by a bee-keeper.) By this time Paul changed his major to biology,
and Annie was taking several classes and working as the secretary of the
Business Manager. They didn't have much money, but they were very happy.
In 1941
Paul’s sister, Lois, also ran out of money and had to stay out of school to
work. So Paul and Annie invited Lois to live with them the last two
quarters of the year to help save money. Lois was just the first of many that
Paul and Annie would open up their home to and help over the years.
Everything
changed on December 7, 1941. The student body was called to a meeting at the
old Columbia Auditorium and told of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the
declaration of war.
Paul and
Annie moved to Bremerton the next summer, where Paul worked in the Naval
Shipyard. They shared an uncompleted house purchased by their friends, George
and Margaret Armstrong. Paul and George worked the night shift, came home
and slept for a few hours, then spent the rest of their day building a house –
mostly with scrap wood. They also dug a well by hand. They survived harsh
winters and the difficult war years in this house, then sold it after the war
and shared the profit of their work.
Paul and
Annie’s first son, Richard, was born January 2, 1942.
In 1944-45,
while he was still a student at WWC, Paul and Annie accepted a call to teach at
Mt. Ellis Academy. Paul worked as the assistant farm manager, worked in
maintenance, as well as teaching science classes and band. (Somehow he had
figured out how to conduct music too!) Annie taught piano, typing, and
shorthand. She also played drum in the band. Imagine their disappointment
when, returning from a band trip, they found that their house had caught fire
and burned to the ground. They lost virtually everything they owned and spent
the remainder of the year living in the girls’ dormitory.
About this
time Paul and Annie were asked to consider a call to go to Singapore as
missionaries for a six-year term. Paul returned to WWC and finished his degree
in 1946, then accepted the call to mission service. Before leaving for
Singapore he and Annie were required to attend classes to learn ‘Bahasa,’ the
local Malayan language used in Singapore.
Leaving was
difficult as Annie was an only child and Paul's mother was dying of breast
cancer. The only way to communicate in those days was by mail. A letter
could take weeks to be delivered to or from a foreign country. Leaving home
under these circumstances was extremely difficult. Paul knew he would not see
his mother again until the resurrection.
After
enduring a harrowing, stormy crossing of the Pacific they arrived in Japan,
where they were driven from Tokyo to Yokohama. Paul’s recollection of that
drive was vivid years later. Due to the recent fire bombings of Tokyo, the only
things they saw standing for the entire forty-mile drive were a few smoke
stacks.
Paul and
Annie arrived in Singapore in 1946, soon after the end of World War II. The
Japanese occupiers had burned all the furniture in the hospital, using it for
firewood. Paul’s first job was to build all new furniture for the hospital –
beds, chairs, and desks. He was given an empty field. With the help of local
workmen he built a shop and, using equipment he had purchased and brought on
the ship, began building furniture. Once the hospital and school had all the
furniture that was needed, Paul continued to run the shop. Taking on commercial
jobs in Singapore, he was able to turn the shop into a profit center for the
mission.
Most of the
workers Paul hired were not Christians, and he had a burden to lead them to
Christ. So he came up with a plan. He told them that they could either continue
to come to work at the same time and earn a full day’s pay. Or they could come
30 minutes early and attend a class. If they came early they would be paid the
extra 30 minutes. Most attended his Bible class, and several were baptized. At
least one of these gentlemen, still living in Singapore, stayed in touch with Paul
through all the intervening years.
As
with all missionaries, Paul and Annie ended up doing a little of everything to
help out.
On one mission trip they made into the jungles of Borneo Paul ended up sleeping
in a Long House (a house only for men and which was decorated all around the
ceiling with human skulls taken by headhunters). Annie often told a story later
of being fed soup with chicken’s feet in it. She quietly snuck the chicken’s
feet to the dogs, as she could not stomach them with mud still showing under
the claws!
In 1952
Donald and Ronald were born at the Youngberg Memorial Hospital in Singapore.
(Don and Ron currently live in College Place with their wives, Debbie and
Cheryl. The twins both work for Continental Airlines).
In 1953 the
Coleman family left Singapore and moved to Paul’s new job – teaching music at
Auburn Academy.
While
teaching at Auburn Academy Paul obtained his master’s degree from the
University of Washington in Seattle. He also took formal music conducting
lessons from a professional in Seattle during this time.
Paul also
taught himself about bee keeping. For years he kept several hives of bees and
sold honey (under the label "The Three Bears"). He and Annie would
harvest the honey themselves, extract it, and package it.
In 1954 Lewis
was born at the Portland Sanitarium. (Lewis and his wife, Cheryl, live near
Portland, where he works as a paramedic for American Medical Response).
About this
time, unable to play the trumpet any longer due to problems with his teeth,
Paul learned to play the flute (studying under the principal flute player for
the Seattle Symphony). He and Annie taught all of their sons their love for
music, and Paul taught each of them to play the clarinet.
In 1960 Paul
and Annie moved to the Portland area to assist Annie’s mother, Catherine
(‘Cassie’) after the death of Annie’s father. Paul accepted a position teaching
music at Portland Union Academy.
Paul also
learned Morse code and obtained his ham radio operator’s license. This was a
skill that he was able to put to practical use in the years before telephones
and internet became commonplace.
In 1961 Paul
and Annie again accepted a call to go to Indonesia where Paul supervised the
construction of the Djakarta Evangelistic Center, a five story building which
included an auditorium for meetings on the main level. Serving as missionaries
requires sacrifices – both personal and financial. One of the disappointments
Paul and Annie had to endure during this time was missing their oldest son’s
wedding in Portland. Richard and Jean Gingrich were married during Richard’s
junior year at WWC. (Richard was a theology major at WWC).
By 1965 the
political situation had become very unstable in Indonesia, and the Coleman
family moved once again, this time to Laurelwood
Academy, where Paul again resumed teaching music.
February 5,
1966 the Coleman’s oldest son Richard, along with his wife Jean, visited Paul,
Annie, and the boys at Laurelwood Academy. Richard,
who was now a licensed pilot, had flown down with friends to attend a program
of the Vienna Choir Boys at Portland Adventist Academy on Saturday night.
At about 4 AM Sunday morning Paul and Annie’s phone rang. It was the FAA,
informing them that their son’s airplane had taken off from Troutdale, Oregon,
late Saturday night and had never reached Walla Walla.
After
several weeks of searching, the rescue efforts were called off. The airplane
was eventually found in June of 1967, on Larch Mountain, just a few miles from
the point of departure. Richard, Jean, and their good friends, Joe & Cheryl
Jensen had all perished. In spite of enduring months of uncertainty, ending in
severe disappointment, Paul and Annie’s faith in God remained firm. This
experience was, no doubt, one of the bitterest of their lives.
Paul had
also learned how to work with metals. And he learned to repair his own cars,
rarely taking them to a shop for anything. Paul used his own car as a ‘guinea
pig’ to teach his boys how to remove the engine from a car, disassemble it,
reassemble it, put it back in the car and get it running again. Somehow, Paul
had taught himself to be a ‘jack of all trades’ – and he spent many hours over
the years patiently trying to pass on what he had learned to each of his sons.
In 1970 Paul
accepted a position as Assistant Plant Service Manager at Walla Walla College,
where he worked with one of his best friends, Lester Border, until officially
retiring in 1978.
Paul and
Annie then moved to the farm that her parents had purchased in 1940. Paul
and Annie purchased part of the old college industrial arts building when it
was being demolished. They disassembled the sections of the building,
piece by piece, and salvaged the building materials. They then took two semi
truckloads of these materials to the family farm near Portland, where – once
again proving his resourcefulness, Paul designed and built a shop and garage
using the ‘scrap’ material.
Drawing on
the many skills he had developed using metals and wood, Paul started a small
business, Custom Fabricators.
Paul and Annie
(along with his sister, Lois, whom they invited to live on the farm) enjoyed
the farm life, raising a large garden each year in addition to tending to fruit
trees and a vineyard. They also grew Noble Firs to sell as Christmas trees each
year.
Paul also
added on to the farmhouse and built Annie a new kitchen. They did not have the
money to buy nice cabinets, so – demonstrating his resourcefulness and patience - he set to
work to make them. He cut down wild cherry trees growing on the farm, found a
business willing to cut them into boards for free (in exchange for letting them
take pictures of their equipment on his property to be used for advertising
brochures), cured the lumber, and built beautiful sold wood cherry cabinets for
the entire kitchen. This project took him a couple of years.
Both Paul
and Annie remained active in church work after ‘retirement,’ first as members
of the Gresham Seventh-day Adventist Church, and then the Sunnyside Church.
They spent many hours in church board meetings, served as an elder and
deaconess, and helped with many volunteer fundraisers and other church
activities.
Overcoming
what must have been a deep fear of flying after losing his oldest son in a
plane crash, Paul decided to learn to fly. He earned his Private Pilot’s
license after he retired and remained current and qualified as a pilot for many
years – a ‘hobby’ that Annie, understandably, never learned to enjoy.
Paul never
shied away from learning – even in his later years. He learned to use a
computer when he was in his 80s.
Retirement
didn't kill Paul and Annie’s love for the mission field. During the late 1980s
they again accepted mission calls – to serve as SOS (volunteer) missionaries in
both Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Taiwan Paul worked with the local staff at the
Taipei Adventist Hospital to correct problems with the heating and air
conditioning system as well as setting up an effective maintenance program at
the hospital.
Annie worked
in the office and taught English classes. In Hong Kong Paul supervised the
complete renovation of the Tsuen Wan Adventist Hospital - floor by floor while
the hospital remained open and in use. Annie became involved with Adventist
World Radio and became the recording voice for many English stories that were
later broadcast.
Paul had
always enjoyed tennis. And he did not let his retirement slow him down. He
played well until he was in his mid-eighties, winning trophies at the local
tennis club where he was a member, often at the expense of opponents who were
fifty or more years his junior! In fact, at the age of 88 Paul traveled to Guam
and celebrated his birthday by playing tennis with his sons.
In 1998 Paul
experienced another tremendous disappointment. Annie, his wife of 58 years,
suffered a stroke and remained bedridden for five years before she passed away.
Though he spent the remainder of his life dealing with loneliness he rarely
complained. His deep, abiding faith in God never wavered. He often consoled
himself with his music. And he had a deep yearning to share God’s love and plan
of salvation with anyone who would listen.
Paul
remained active with his musical talent until his late 80s. He particularly
loved the brass instruments. He had purchased a euphonium and learned to play
it in his 70s. He organized a quintet, Patriarchal Brass, and performed with
the group many times until just a few years ago.
At the age
of 89, unable to drive safely any longer and in declining health, Paul move
from his farm near Portland to the Wheatland Retirement Center in Walla Walla.
He continued to be involved in music, attending many concerts up until just a
few weeks before his death. He loved to play chess in his later years, and
learned to play quite well. He also continued to garden, raising his last
garden in the summer of 2008.
Those of you
who knew Paul well will no doubt agree that the following are just some of his
greatest attributes: he was honest, God fearing, loved
his family deeply, cared very much about others, was patient, and frugal.
To Lois he
was a brother. To Don, Ron, and Lewie he was “dad.”
To thirteen others he was ‘Grampa’ or ‘great-Grampa’ Paul. To many others he
was simply ‘Uncle Paul.’ To many more, he was a Teacher. And
for so many more, a Friend who cared.
Until the
resurrection, he will be deeply missed.
Paul
Coleman
Lived Life Fully
Musician, Teacher, Scholar, Photographer,
Beekeeper, Sportsman, Craftsman, Handyman, Mechanic, Carpenter, Cabinet Maker,
Missionary, Gardener, Ham Radio Operator, Licensed Pilot, Prankster, Hard
Worker, Brother, Father, Husband, Lover of Life, and a Friend to Many.
Paul was interred on April 27, 2009, in the
Brush Prairie Pioneer Cemetery near Battleground, Washington, in a private
service. He sleeps beside his wife, Annie (as he called her), and her parents,
Edgar Merle Smith and Catherine ‘Cassie’ Mae (Preston) Smith. Beside their
graves lie Joe and Sarah Preston, Annie’s grandparents, who donated the land
that the Columbia Adventist Academy Seventh-day Adventist Church and Meadow
Glade Elementary School occupy today. Following is an outline of the comments
delivered by his son Don at the graveside service.
Although it may seem ironic, it also seems quite
appropriate that dad is being laid to rest here today. For it
is near Columbia Academy where Paul and Annie first met.
The apostle Paul, writing to the new converts in
Thessalonica, said:
"Brothers, I want you to know the truth of what
I told you when I was with you. Your loved ones who have died are sleeping in
Christ. Don’t grieve over them (the same) as (other) people grieve over their
dead, as if there were no hope.
Jesus died – and rose again!;
therefore, those who die in Him will be raised to life by God just as Jesus
was.
We’re telling you this by the authority of the Lord
Jesus Christ. What He taught us was that we who are living will not be
taken to heaven ahead of our loved ones who have died in Christ and are now
sleeping.
When Christ descends from heaven, He, as the
archangel, will give a shout of command – the trumpet call of God to the dead –
and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then those believers living at that time will be
changed and, together with those who have been resurrected, will be caught up
in the sky to meet the Lord in the air, and from then on, we will all be with
the Lord.
So comfort and encourage each other with these
words." (I Thessalonians 4:13-18)
I have recently pondered about what were the most
important things my dad taught me. And I decided they can be boiled down to
three simple concepts:
I can’t remember how many times dad told us boys,
"If you don’t have the cash to pay for it, don’t buy it!"
Dad had a fierce desire to keep on living. He told
me so before we took him to the hospital. But his battle with pneumonia was
simply too difficult. And he lost that battle on March 5.
We are told that the devil roams the earth, seeking
whom he may devour. From the moment of birth we are each engaged in this battle
with sin.
But I can say proudly to my father, "Dad,
although you lost this battle, you have won the war!"
You can rest now. Sleep well. We will miss you -
until we see you in the morning!
Many tributes were received by the family from Paul
Coleman's friends and acquaintances.