Posted by William H. Ward on January 22, 2015:

If my math is correct, I'm the 19th person to post a Eulogy in memory of Paul Sawtelle here. From my personal observation, this is rather phenomenal only because so many are unaware of this particular site. Just reading through a few--all sincere, and all touching--one particularly caught my attention: the one from Dan Donahue, USMA'68, whose name is now on the Class of 1968 Eulogy list. So many of us have memories of Paul, some of events of notable impact, and others of a more mundane nature which, nonetheless, show what a remarkable person Paul was to us. He's a small example. Sometime early in "Cow" year, when we were all part of the newly-formed Company G-2, I received a gift of a chess set, which consisted of classic wooden carvings of all the pieces within a full-size hinged wooden case with full-size chess boards on both of the large sides. It was about two inches thick with a felt-padded inside, but no formed inlaid slots for each piece. Paul saw this set and I shared with him my concern that, because the pieces could "roll around" inside the set, they could break. Paul had the following "weekend" away, and when he returned, he presented me with two precisely cut rectangular foam pads to protect the pieces. Those foam pads are still in the set! This is just the kind of caring classmate he was. When I was in the Eleventh Grade, I had a rather stern English teacher who required us to memorize certain passages of classic poetry. One of these was A Psalm of Life by Longfellow, with a passage as follows: Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime; And dying leaving behind us Footprints on the Sands of Time. Footprints that perhaps another Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn or shipwrecked brother, Seeing shall take heart again. Paul was one of those Great Men. And he certainly left Footprints! Sail On, Dear Brother! Bill Ward, '69 ward69@aol.com

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