Paul Edmund Stubbe

1929 - 2019

Paul Edmund Stubbe



The Spirit of Paul Edmund Stubbe passed to be with God on December 8, 2019; he would have been 90 years old this Christmas Eve. He died at home, Aberdeen Ct, Palm Harbor, FL in Hospice Care, in the presence of his wife, Sueshila Stubbe and her daughter Deborah Phillips, after a very full and satisfying life that was devoted to serving the Brandywine Valley Community in PA and DE, and then that of Albuquerque, NM for the past 22 years.

Born in 1929, and raised in Elizabeth, NJ during the World War II years he was the second-born of Edmund Tiege and Elizabeth Brown Stubbe. He was notably proud of being an Eagle Scout; their Oath of Service formed the core values he lived throughout his entire life. A second influence to his character was the summer farming life he lived as a teen in Layton, PA, in the Poconos, where his father had bought a farm. There, he and his brother, Charles Stanley Stubbe (now living in Pottstown, PA) and his sister Joan Stubbe, Mrs. Douglas Akers, (deceased 2008, Annapolis, MD) planted oak and apple trees, milked cows, and did haying and raised vegetables during those War Years.

Choosing to go to Cornell University, he was the secretary of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, a manager for both the School magazine and the Varsity Crew Team and elected to Cornell's Honorary Society before graduating with a degree in Agricultural Economics, 1951. With the advent of the Korean War, he chose to enlist in the Air Force, graduated from Officers Candidate School, Lackland A.F. Base, San Antonio, TX, 1953 and served in Lowry A.F. Base, Denver.

In January 1954, he joined the Atlas Powder Co., in Wilmington, DE and was transferred to St. Louis, MO with a 6 state territory in the Southwest. There, he met his first wife, Patricia Sue Collins, marrying June 1957. When he was relocated back to Wilmington, he established a home there, and later in Kennett Square, PA. There were two sons of this marriage: first, Eric P., born August 24, 1979, now of Safety Harbor, FL, who lives with his children Paula and Charlotte Stubbe and a great granddaughter Ave Stubbe, and Eric's son Steven E. Stubbe, now residing in Shaver Lake, CA. Paul was able to attend the wedding celebration of this grandson Steven to Elizabeth (Liz) Foran on September 28 in Tampa, FL. Paul's second son Steven was born May 19, 1964 and is now living in Bridgewater, NJ with his daughter Samantha Stubbe.

Paul completed a Masters Degree in Economics at the University of Delaware in 1966, and then began a 32-year career in Wilmington, DE with employment at ICI Chemicals, AstraZeneca, and in 1981 forming his own Financial Planning Business with Alan Peters. During these years, he was President of the DE Valley Cornell Club, President of the Wilmington Chapter of the National Association of Business Economists, and President of the Red Clay Valley Association, the Brandywine Valley Association and the Crum Creek Watershed Association.

Having divorced his first wife in 1985, he remarried Sueshila (Barbara Rusch) Szanto in Downingtown, PA, April 26, 1991, the daughter of Ross George Rusch and Mary M McConnell. They have been blessed each day of their 28 years together. She had two daughters by a marriage to Ivan G. Szanto, of Budapest, Hungary: Marianne E. Szanto, now Mrs. Peter J. Owens of Ocean View, DE and Dr. Deborah L. Szanto now Mrs. Theodore Phillips of Yorktown Heights, NY. Paul loved and was beloved by these daughters and their children: Brian R. Owens, Lauren E. Owens and Tyler I. Phillips.

In 1996, Paul and Sueshila moved from their Westtown, PA home to Albuquerque, NM. There, they pursued their lifelong hobby together of hiking â€" on the Appalachian Trail, the mountains of NM and CO, the Alps, and the Pyrenees. For 22 years they lived in the beautiful SW, and here Paul served the community at the NM Museum of Natural History, the Rio Grande Nature Center, the Sandia Mountain National History Center, and the US Forest Service Sandia Ranger District. Here, his most proud accomplishment for 15 years was his tutoring of over forty 4th and 5th graders for the National Oasis Organization. Paul was an accomplished watercolorist and participated in two painting groups at the Bear Canyon Senior Center for all his years in Albuquerque.

Paul did not want a formal memorial service. He requested that his family and friends gather together to share his Presence in a Happy Celebration, and that his ashes be loosed on the Sandia Mountains that he loved so much. His family and all his friends know that he was Blessed by God to be a very Special Loving Person who cared deeply about his two families, his many friends, and the natural world he lived in.