Paul Lulewicz Obituary

Paul Vincent Lulewicz

1959 - 2018

Paul Vincent Lulewicz of Kawagoe, Japan died on May 28, 2018, in Vientiane, Laos. Born August 22, 1959, in Kenosha, Wis., Paul was the son of Alexander F. Lulewicz and Helen E. (Simoncik) Lulewicz.

Paul attended St Therese Catholic Grade School, St Joseph High School (77), Marquette University and UW – Madison where he studied liberal arts.

Paul had a wander lust for travel that started in the Caribbean as he helped restore the wooden sail boat Anna Kristina that he sailed to New York. He has also lived in: South Africa (working and farming at various tribal cooperatives), in Chicago he imported African jewelry and décor for the Zulu Crafts store, Japan (public transportation and tourism) and Thailand (tourism). For the past 23 years he has lived in Kawagoe, Japan (known as the Little Tokyo).

Paul played youth hockey at the Kenosha County Ice Arena and continued this in Japan and Thailand. Paul also enjoyed XC skiing, bicycling, new tech gadgets, critiquing movies, cooking and Point Beer. During his annual visits to Kenosha Paul enjoyed shopping at Tenuta's Deli, Jockey Store and the Outlet Mall. Paul enjoyed cooking a meal while describing in detail every step of the process.

Paul worked for Eagle Bus Company in Japan to develop a smarter bus to optimize route and passenger efficiencies. Paul promoted English speaking tourism in Kawagoe, Japan and in Chang Mai, Thailand. Paul was the editor of a Neurological journal. He reviewed and edited medical and scientific journal articles prior to their submission for publication. He also taught a class on this subject at the medical college in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Recently, Paul a consultant to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was working on a 4 year 'Project to Enhance the Capacity of Vientiane Capital Bus Enterprise' in Laos. Paul died of unknown natural causes.

Paul was married and divorced to: Karen Muir and Mika Takahashi. He raised her son Nico Takahashi as his own. Paul is survived by 3 siblings and their families: John and Elzbieta (Wisniewska) Lulewicz of Milwaukee and their children: Alexander, Dominika, and Magdalena; Margaret Lulewicz of Kenosha and her son Andrew Blackburn; and Elizabeth (Lulewicz) Smith and Scott Smith of Lake Geneva and their children: Alison, Katie, and Jessica.

On Friday July 27, a visitation will be held at St Therese Catholic Church 2020 91st Street Kenosha from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. followed by a funeral Mass at 10:30. Paul's inurned remains will be interred at St Casmir Cemetery in a private ceremony.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Kenosha News on Jul. 25, 2018.

Memories and Condolences
for Paul Lulewicz

Sponsored by Peter Vernezze.

6 Entries

Peter

August 29, 2020

Happy Birthday (a week late, I realize). I wish you were around so we could talk about all this craziness. It’d be a lot easier to get through this.

Lake Huron

Karl Peterburs

September 24, 2018

Bruce Barrett

September 4, 2018

Paul was one of my very best friends, and I'm not sure I've even begun reconciling the fact that he's no longer with us. His presence was legendary. People noticed him, heard him laugh, and listened to him keenly, not always knowing what he spoke about, but always impressed by his knowledge, voice, ideas. As a research professor and physician at a top university, I've been around quite a few clever people, but 'though he lacked in formal degrees, Paul's innate intelligence was next to none. When talking with you, his attention was right there, on you as a person, and on the conversational topic at hand. And boy could he converse! Never in my life has anyone displayed a wider range of interests, with reasonably deep and accurate knowledge across innumerable areas of human inquiry. When he didn't already know something, he asked exactly the right questions, and learned voraciously. We met in college, sailed the BVIs together, paddled quite a few Wisconsin rivers, cross country skied dozens of times, and drank more beer and sang more songs than all the Irish and Scottish put together! Paul my friend, I love you dearly, and hope beyond hope that there is an afterworld in which we will meet again. You will not be forgotten.

Peter Vernezze

August 29, 2018

I first met Paul in high schoola time when teenagers inevitably attempt to find their way into a preordained social structure. What initially drew me to him was the fact that neither us fit into the established high school cliques of jocks, nerds, and stoners. But there was this difference. Whereas I felt at home with none of the entrenched groups, Paul was accepted everywhere, like the social equivalent of O positive blood. He was rambunctious as the stoners, could match any computer geek in knowledge, as creative as the theater folks, and lacked for nothing in strength and stamina.

I was instantly intrigued by this personality, and when it turned out we both shared an interest in matters of the mind a conversation was starteda conversation that would continue for more than forty years. It was Paul and not any of my high school teachers who awakened my intellectual curiosity as we rolled through the streets of Kenosha in his blue Nash listening to The Doors discussing art, music, literature, and life. Even at this early stage Paul could invoke names like Plato, Thoreau, and Sartre, inevitably revealing my ignorance and spurring my curiosity. Indeed, I can trace my career path as a philosophy professor to those initial conversations.

These conversations would continue into college where Paul at first visited me at the University of Wisconsin before ultimately moving up to Madison. After several unforgettable years in Mad City, our paths diverged as Paul sailed boats in the Caribbean and worked with tribal cooperatives in South Africa while I moved onto much safer waters of graduate school. But the conversation never ceased, although in those pre-Skype days they were often delayed due to circumstances.

Over the years, I have had the pleasure skiing in Yellowstone, climbing Mt. Fuji in Japan, floating on the Mekong River on the border between Thailand and Laos with Paul. I've also enjoyed many memorable guitar jam sessions with him, both in person and technology-aided, singing and strumming old favorites or following Paul on some new tune he had been working on. But most meaningful were those innumerable conversations: parsing residential elections, discussing current and contemporary movies, rehashing old debates about our favorite authors, or simply musing existentially about the nature of life.

Paul was the most generous soul I have ever met. He enjoyed nothing more than preparing a feast for others, tending over the preparations as a mother does sending a child to kindergarten for the first time. Some of my fondest memories are visiting him in Thailand and walking with him through the Rinping supermarket in Chiang Mai while he was embarked on in a Holy Grail like quest for the perfect rack of ribs to barbecue on the grill. His intelligence was legendary to all who encountered him as he could converse with anybody about seemingly anything and not just because he enjoyed talking (which he did) but because he had read widely in everything from computer science to medicine to film theory to physics to philosophy to, well, you name it. But above all what I think about when I think about Paul is a tremendous joy at being alivea joy you immediately felt when standing in his presence, a joy that was contagious.
I once read a quote that has stayed with me for decades, to the effect that there is only one victory in life, and that is living life on your own terms. By this standard, Paul was a great success, though by the world's standards it might not appear so. Paul never held what could be called a 9 to 5 job, but he made his way through this world in his own inevitably unique and interesting way. Paul has been compared to the likes of the Dude and Dean Moriarty, and there is certainly something in the comparison with these fictional iconoclastic free-spirits.

My friendship with Paul was one of the great joys of my life, and my days would inevitably be darker now except I know that rather than sadness Paul would want me to seize the day: to strum a Dylan tune or take a sip of Glenlivet 12 (or preferably both). And at least for tonight, that's exactly what I' going to do.

Mark Onosko

July 25, 2018

My thoughts and prayers are with your family during this most difficult of times.

Amy Lindl Skrypchak

July 25, 2018

I am so very sad to read about Paul's death. He was a high school classmate of mine who always was smiling, upbeat, helpful, creative and very smart. Remembering that about him makes his accomplishments in life no surprise. I'm sure he touched many lives through his varied interests and kept people smiling the whole time! My sincere condolences to Paul's family. May his spirit and memories stay close at heart, always.

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