Paul Koontz: Over 70 Years of Friendship
I first met Paul in 1945 when we were both attending Southwest High School in Kansas City. After a year at Southwest, I went away to school at Peddie in Hightstown, New Jersey and Paul went to Penday in Kansas City, but we always kept in contact. Paul went on to Princeton while I attended Northwestern.
At that time, I was very active in sailboat racing, and I asked Paul to crew for me. Paul did not have any knowledge of sailing or sailboats, but he was a good athlete, dependable and I knew I could teach him to sail. And he quickly became a skilled and faithful crew, driving out to Lake Lotawana every Saturday and Sunday. We were consistently near the top of the fleet.
In the summer of 1952, I decided that we should challenge the big boys up north. And so, we were off to a Regatta on Lake Geneva, in southern Wisconsin, driving the family station wagon, sailboat in tow. We did not win and in fact I was quite embarrassed because we were beaten by Jane Pagel, a girl!
To save a hotel bill on the return trip, we stayed at the SAE fraternity house in Evanston. That night I took Paul to Calumet City to see some of the seamier side of the Chicago area nightlife. I had forewarned him that some of the topless performers could be relentless, so imagine my surprise to return to our table from the men's room and find Paul with a topless performer on his lap. She already had five drinks on the table. Paul said he was trying to convince her that she was too nice to be in this line of work. There are some things they don't teach you at Princeton.
Paul went on to medical school and I visited him in New York where he was taking his surgical residency. He invited me to watch him remove a ruptured appendix. I was impressed with how clean the operating room was and how the nurses respected and admired Paul. Paul returned to Kansas City and became one of the top surgeons in the area, specializing in breast cancer. As he neared retirement, he was honored by having the breast cancer section of St. Luke's Hospital named after him.
Over the years Paul would occasionally join me as crew on some of my sailing adventures aboard Expectation. On our almost disastrous 1983 voyage from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta, I managed to rip our mainsail from luff to leach in an accidental jibe. Paul, being the only one in the crew who could sew, was assigned the job of making the repair. His stitching was beautiful, but it soon became apparent that, at the rate he was progressing, we were going to be stuck on this island all winter. We took the damaged sail to the local village and Paul got to watch a native woman look in disdain at $10,000 worth of stitches, Paul's surgical rate, and then rip them out.
Paul and I had a wonderful mutual friend, Jerry McCann. I had invited them to join me in Panama to transit the canal and explore the Pacific islands. I had not seen Jerry for some time and did not realize how weak he was from a heart condition. Paul was attentive and caring in tending Jerry and I still have a picture of Paul helping Jerry up a steep ramp after we had beached the dinghy. Jerry died far too early and his wonderful wife, Suzie, married and buried one more man.
In 1959 I had attended Paul's wedding to Xanie in New York but that did not last. Later he married Susan but again, the marriage failed.
In 2015 Paul and Suzie were married, which to me is a match made in heaven.
What are the ingredients of Paul’s and my seventy plus years of friendship? Maybe it’s the kindnesses. Perhaps it’s trust. Possibly, it’s the wicked dry humor. Likely a love of sailing has a lot to do with it. And the adventures. And mutual respect. Yes, we have all of that.