Paul Christian Handte

Paul C. Handte died Nov. 13, at his home in Vestal. He was 74.

Paul grew up in Port Dickinson and was a 1969 graduate of Chenango Valley Junior-Senior High School, where he was president of the Chess and Debate Clubs and a solid contributor to coach McDaniels' legendary Cross Country teams.

He was a Physics major at the University of California, Berkeley.

Taking a spring quarter off from school during a buildings and grounds strike, he became a janitor on campus and by summer was a supervisor in charge of three buildings, with his younger brother Malcolm and a friend working for him. The next summer, when the janitorial positions were unavailable, the brothers went to Wyoming and worked in road construction and oil well drilling. Subsequent jobs included work for a San Francisco law firm and driving a cab in San Diego. Later, while roving the freeways in his van, Paul would look for people broken down on the side of the road and offer to help with repairs, becoming, over time, a very skilled auto diagnostician and mechanic. Oil field work became a recurring theme, including at least one winter in the Williston Basin in North Dakota.

After the deaths of his parents, Anna R. C. ("Nancy") and Gerald F. ("Jerry") Handte, a long-time reporter and columnist for the Evening Press, Paul returned to the Southern Tier and, inheriting their house, lead a very quiet existence for the last twenty plus years of his life, except for occasional call-ins to sports radio stations and the Joe Rogan show, under the monicker "Paul from the Twilight Zone".

Paul Handte is survived by his brother Malcolm, niece Emma, and nephew Felix of New York City, and by his sister Julianne ("Anne") Handte of Albany. He was also predecessed by his beloved younger brother Fred.

A memorial service and interment will be at the family's summer community in Greene County, in the late Spring.

Please reach out to the family or funeral home for details in early spring.