Paul Weller

Paul Franklin Weller, 90, of Siesta Key, Florida, passed away peacefully on March 18, 2026, at Brookdale Brea in California.

Paul was born on August 30, 1935, to the late Florence and Frank Weller in Kankakee, Illinois.

Paul had great passions for learning and for chemistry, earning a B.S. degree at the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. at Cornell University. He was a research chemist at IBM in the early 1960s, before embarking on a rewarding academic career that took him from Fredonia State University of New York, to the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Western Illinois University, to Vice President of Academic Affairs at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, to President of Framingham State College in Massachusetts, retiring to Sarasota, Florida in 1996.

Warm, chatty, and always upbeat, Paul developed a remarkable talent for bringing people together. From monthly colleague dinners at his house, to a renowned speaker series at Framingham State, to a 20,000-person protest of university system cuts in Boston, to the Sarasota Illini Club, to a lunch group at Brookdale Brea; he acted on his belief that being together, talking and reasoning together, brought us together.

Paul traveled all over Europe with his wife, Gail, and also to Australia, Egypt, China, and Liberia. His most memorable journey abroad was as a young professor with his family in tow, circumnavigating the world for six months.

Paul enjoyed taking thousands of photographs featuring his travels, his family, birds, and sunsets. He has left gorgeous photos that adorn the homes of family and friends, as well as picture books lovingly documenting family history.

A Kankakee High basketball hall-of-famer, Paul also shared the fun of sports with his boys and grandsons at many sporting events, and was an avid fan, especially of college basketball and his Fighting Illini.

And Paul had a wonderful sense of humor and religiously watched all the late-night comedy shows. Fellow Midwesterner David Letterman brought out Paul’s biggest laughs.

Paul was preceded in death by his wife, Gail (Seibert) and daughter-in-law, Julie (Gordon). He is survived by his two sons and their partners in California, Mark and Vanita Seth, and David and Angela Bakken Henderson; and his three grandchildren: Dayan, Matthew, and Brendan.