Professor Paul E. Field - "A Celebration of his life" - my friend

Saturday June 22nd my wife Gaynell and I attended the "Celebration of  Paul E Field's Life" at his country home near Blacksburg, Virginia. Paul passed away April 11,2013. He was a faculty colleague in the Department of Chemistry at Virginia Tech (VT). During my 31 years at VT Paul and I had many ventures together. I remember him with great fondness as we met 100's of times in his Davidson Hall corner office solving all the world's problems. Most of the time classical or sometimes long hair music was playing in the background on his tape deck.
                                                                           

                                              Paul Field's photographs from his Webpage

The Celebration was a wonderful tribute to his life with more then 45 special guests joining his wife Jewell and children Thom, Randy and Sylvia.   We could tell Paul was loved dearly by his family as they played two of his favorite songs.  All the family members did  readings of passages Paul had written.  I did not know he had such creative talents as a writer - the readings were especially moving and immediately brought  back images of good times I experienced with Paul. He had his unique philosophy about life and  put it into words as only a good wordsmith could do.  He must have written 1000's of passages, short thoughts, epigrams, quotes, poems, & ideas about how life was lived. 

The Folly - Randy Field told me this is called a Folly because it has no particular use. What a great place to meditate and  absorb some of the Universal Energy Field. The mural paintings are fine art and the building is an architectural beauty. We were able to view and read some of his writings in the folly built by Paul and on the yard art he created at his loved Vinivilla home.  Paul had many artistic talents beyond his work as a Chemistry Professor. Wow I did not know of his fine art creativity.

 The Obelisk designed and built by Paul is just beautiful and loaded with his philosophical writings. I understand he made the ceramic pieces as well.  Gosh this was a lot of work - he must have loved making the Obelisk and it will be tribute that should last many generations.

Thinking back during the times we worked together, I realize Paul and I had many common projects. Paul and I taught 58 Microcomputer Instrumentation workshops from 1976 to 1992. We traveled all over the East Coast teaching these programs. We worked together on dozens of Microcomputer Columns published in US and foreign publications. Paul was always willing to help with the "Electronics for Scientist" course in the Chemistry department and filled in when I was out of town. A connection continuing today is his book "Computer Assisted Home Energy Management," Paul wrote in our "Blacksburg Continuing Education Series ". This is just a short list --- we had fun doing many programs and events during our common years at VT.

It was a great pleasure and honor to know & work with Paul over the years.  I miss his friendship and times  together. He would have been very proud and pleased with the "Celebration of his Life" done so well by his loving family. The guests at the Celebration were there to honor Paul and everyone was truly moved with emotion and love for him. 
Comments in  - Jewell's Blog-

Paul - Good bye my friend -you will always be remembered .

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"by David Larsen"