Paul Becker
Obituary
Dr. Paul G. Becker passed away in his
home on Nov. 19, 2018, at the age of 100. Paul was born on his family
farm in Marion County on April 23, 1918. He was the grandson of
Russian Mennonite emigrants who brought hard winter wheat seeds with
them to Kansas and helped transform the Midwest into the breadbasket
of the U.S. Paul's elementary education was in a one-room country
school. The family later moved to Newton and Paul graduated from high
school in 1936 with honors in scholarship, music and drama.
In 1938, he was recruited and accepted
by the American Friends Service Committee for a project to resettle
German Jewish families desiring emigration to welcoming countries.
This could not be activated due to the outbreak of World War II in
1939.
Paul earned his undergraduate degree
from Bethel College, North Newton. He received his Doctor of Medicine
degree two years and eight months later from the University of Kansas
School of Medicine under the wartime scholastic acceleration program.
He completed his internship and surgical training at the University
of Iowa College of Medicine, where he was also on the surgical
faculty for one year. He left the University of Iowa in 1951 for a
year of private surgical practice with a medical group in Pueblo,
Colorado.
The Korean War draft prompted Paul to
accept an appointment as a commissioned officer in the United States
Public Health Service (USPHS) with a rank of Commander and Senior
Surgeon. He served as Chief of Surgery at several duty stations
including Atlanta, McNeil Island, Washington, and the U.S. Marine
Hospital in Boston, where he was in charge of the surgery-training
program for residents.
In 1957, Paul left the USPHS and active
duty and moved to Denver, where he joined the Colorado Medical Clinic
partnership in private practice as a general surgeon. He served a
three-year term as Chief of Surgery at Porter Memorial Hospital and
served as Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University
of Colorado School of Medicine for several years. He was a surgery
consultant to Rocky Mountain Blue Cross and Blue Shield and to the
Colorado Board of Medical Examiners and was a U.S. official delegate
to the second world conference on Prison Health Care.
Paul was a Diplomate of the American
Board of Surgery, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and
the Southwestern Surgical Congress, a member of the Denver Academy of
Surgery, the American Medical Association, the Colorado Medical
Society and the Arapahoe Medical Society, as well as a founding
member of the Rocky Mountain Hand Surgery Society.
Over the years, Paul held a wide
variety of elected and appointed positions on hospital staffs and in
medical societies, as well as in church and civic organizations. A
six-decade member of the University Park United Methodist Church, he
served in various lay capacities including the chancel choir and
president of the Church Board of Trustees. He served as a volunteer
camp physician at Camp Tahosa, the Boy Scout camp near Ward,
Colorado, for eight years.
In 1976, Dr. Becker was the recipient
of the George Washington Honor Medal, awarded to him by Freedoms
Foundation at Valley Forge. Following his retirement from private
practice in 1977, he accepted a U.S. Civil Service position as Chief
of Health Programs at the Federal Correctional Institution in
Englewood, Colorado, until 1985.
Paul married the love of his life,
Betty "Betsy" Koehrsen, in Iowa City, Iowa, on Dec. 16,
1948. At the time, Betsy was an instructor in the College of Nursing
and a Nursing Supervisor of the Communicable Disease Unit at the
University of Iowa hospital where they met. After 68 glorious years
of marriage, Betsy passed away in August 2016.
Paul is survived by two daughters, Jan
(Alan) Coe of Orinda, California, and Barbara Becker of Centennial,
Colorado; as well as six grandchildren: Amy (Brian) Rodde, Lisa
(Marshal) Villarosa, Brian Coe, Sarah (Steve) Traeger, Zach (Sarah)
Herscovici and Kalilah (Ben) Harris; and eight great-grandchildren.
Friends and family members fondly
remember Paul's jokes, puns and stories; his sense of humor; his
caring and compassion for all people from all walks of life; his
positive attitude; his incredible memory; his virtual "house
calls" to family and friends; his professionalism; his love of
Colorado, the mountains and his property at American City; his
bowties; his patience and persistence (some would say stubbornness!);
his perfect pitch singing of "Oh, Holy Night" on Christmas
Eve, "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" on Easter morning and
"Happy Birthday" on the phone for every family birthday
every year; his reading of "The Night Before Christmas"
every Christmas Eve; his wisdom in buying the house across from
Washington Park; BBQ ribs and a Jack and Ginger; and his wonderful
example of a loving marriage to Betsy and love for family. He once
published an article entitled "What Can One Man Do?" He
responded to that question with a life well-lived and well-loved.
A Celebration of Paul's Life will be
held at 11 a.m. Saturday (Jan. 5, 2019) in Wassar Chapel/University
Park United Methodist Church, 2180 South University Blvd., Denver.
Private interment service will be at Fort Logan National Cemetery.
Memorial gifts may be made in Paul's
name to Bethel College Development Office, 300 East 27th St., North
Newton, KS 67117 (bethelks.edu/form/donor) or University of Iowa
Center for Advancement, P.O. Box 4550, Iowa City, IA 52242
(donate.givetoiowa.org).
