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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Mourners at Paul Gillum’s memorial service listen to Pastor Jerry Conklin of the Lewis and Clark Bible Church on Saturday. Gillum died suddenly on June 18.
Gillum: Described as respectful, compassionate, fun, kind
Continued from Page 1A
Driving in town
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Astoria Police Deputy Chief Eric Halverson
speaks at Saturday’s memorial service for
former Detective Paul Gillum. More photos
from the service online at DailyAstorian.com
Gillum and his family settled in Astoria in the
mid-1960s. They had spent time in Warrenton
before while camping at Fort Stevens State Park.
Tim Gillum, his brother and a former Astoria
Police corporal, recalled an early impression their
father, Donald, offered about their new home.
“You guys aren’t going to be driving here in
Astoria,” he told his sons. “Too many hills.”
As it turned out, Gillum’s commitments made
driving a necessity.
After returning to Astoria in 1974 from Viet-
nam, where he earned awards like the Vietnam
Service Medal and the Combat Action Ribbon
his six-year tour, he became a Medix paramedic
and reserve police officer in Astoria. He became
a full-time officer in 1979, a position he held for
27 years.
He twice earned the Medal of Valor for rescu-
ing bystanders from gunfire. In 1989, he became
a U.S. marshal, which allowed him to patrol fed-
eral properties during his police shifts, and he
also became a detective. Gillum headed secu-
rity for a number of Hollywood movies filmed in
Astoria, including “The Goonies” and “Kinder-
garten Cop.”
An optimist
Astoria Police Deputy Chief Eric Halver-
son, who at 16 years old joined Gillum during
his patrol shift for a ride-along, described his
mentor as respectful, compassionate, gracious,
fun, kind, gentle, uplifting and an optimist with
a wonderful laugh. Since Gillum’s death, the
department has received condolence calls, not
only from people he worked with, but also from
those he arrested.
“In the difficulties of the world, there’s
something to be learned from someone who has
served others so well,” Halverson said. “See, it
was not just part of his job. It was part of his
life’s work.”
Other service
Gillum served 16 years on the Clatsop Com-
munity College Board of Directors after he was
first elected in 1999. At one point, the college
faced a loss of accreditation due to outdated
facilities. But Gillum was integral to the efforts
that led to Columbia Hall’s construction, as
well as other restoration efforts, Rosemary Bak-
er-Monaghan, the board’s chairwoman, said.
She recalled a handful of times when Gillum
would attend a board meeting during a patrol
shift. He would arrive in full uniform and com-
municate with dispatchers and other officers
over radio, often forcing him to respond to a call
during a meeting.
“As unsettling as that can be every once in a
while when you remember that he was a police
officer, it was also one of the best things about
working with Paul,” Baker-Monaghan said. “He
had an ability in a discussion to give someone a
new or different perspective on any given issue
under consideration because he understood
where you were coming from.”
A deacon
After his retirement from the Police Depart-
ment, Gillum became a transport deputy with
the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office, as well
as a deacon. Members of the Lewis and Clark
Bible Church recalled Gillum’s love of donuts,
easy fodder for jokes considering his previous
career.
He held a number of hobbies, such as car col-
lecting and traveling, and he was well-known as
a sculptor. One of his most famous works is the
Astoria Centennial fountain in Maritime Memo-
rial Park, which he restored in 2011 for the city’s
bicentennial.
Albert Wood, one of Gillum’s best friends,
was also a Vietnam War veteran and member of
the Astoria Police Department. He reflected on
the multiple occasions when Gillum would him
help through emotional issues in his own life.
During his remarks Saturday, he turned toward
Gillum’s wife of 45 years, Jo Abing, and his
son, James Gillum — an Iraq War veteran.
“Jo, I loved him, too,” he said. “I know it’s
hard to share him, but I had a piece of him.”
Relay for Life: Around 400 participated Allen: ‘This is what I
want to do. This keeps
me healthy and happy’
Continued from Page 1A
For those of you out there in
treatment or have finished your
treatment, you are my heroes.”
Continued from Page 1A
Walking for a cause
The Relay for Life, which
ran from 10 a.m. to midnight
Saturday, boasted 22 teams
and around 400 participants
throughout the day, accord-
ing to Parvi. And before a sin-
gle lap was walked, it was
announced that the event
had already raised more than
$29,000.
After introducing a con-
tingent of local pageant win-
ners, including Miss Clatsop
County 2017 Hannah Gar-
hofer and Miss North Coast
2017 Nicole Ramsdell, Parvi
asked, “Now you might be
wondering why we are bring-
ing our pageant people here.”
The answer was to honor
their grand marshal, Mari-
lyn Halbrook, who died in
December from cancer. Hal-
brook, who worked with
Relay for Life for much of
the last two decades, was also
involved in the Miss Ore-
gon Scholarship Program for
many years. Parvi noted that
the date of the local relay was
even changed at one point so
it wouldn’t compete with the
pageant for Halbrook’s sake.
Before beginning the open-
ing survivor lap, a recording
of a song by 2007 Miss Ore-
gon Kari Virding and 2002
Miss America Katie Harding,
performed at this year’s Miss
walks down a well-worn
path on the hillside, keeping
his hands on the rope. As he
works in the garden, he clips
and unclips onto the ropes
hanging from the guardrail
above him.
Landscape to match
Photos by Damian Mulinix/For The Daily Astorian
ABOVE: Cancer survivors are greeted as they make the opening lap of Saturday’s Relay for
Life at Astoria High School. BELOW: Participants in Saturday’s Relay for Life walk the track at
Astoria High School. Twenty-two teams took part in the event that ran from 10 a.m. to midnight.
Oregon pageant in honor of
Halbrook, was played.
Lynette also took the
opportunity to talk about the
new Cancer Care Center, not-
ing that when she first spoke
at the Clatsop event four years
ago, it was still in the concep-
tual stage. The center is now
set to open in October.
“This new facility is some-
thing our whole commu-
nity can truly be proud of,”
she said. “Not only will we
be able to expand our cur-
rent medical oncology, but we
are adding radiation oncol-
ogy services. No longer will
people have to travel one or
more hours away for radia-
tion treatment.”
She also reminded the
crowd, by way of poet Ralph
Waldo Emerson that, “A hero
is no braver than an ordinary
man (or woman), but he (or
she) is brave for five minutes
longer.”
Allen served as presi-
dent of the Senior Center
for two years and was there
when the center underwent
an extensive remodel. He
started the garden because
the renovated building
looked so nice. He thought
it deserved a landscape to
match.
“What do you think of
me tying myself to the bus?”
Allen had asked the center’s
executive director, Larry
Miller, when first trying to
figure out how he would
access the area and begin a
garden there.
“Well, how would we do
it?” Miller replied.
Allen bought red tow
ropes at Deals Only and
said, “Just don’t drive the
bus off with me attached.”
He told Miller if the bus
ever keeled over on top of
him — an unlikely scenario
— to leave him there and
continue with the garden.
“It will be like putting a
ship into the ocean and cre-
ating a reef!” he says now,
grinning.
He organizes the gar-
den in two large binders.
Bulbs were mysterious to
him when he first moved
to Astoria — he lived most
of his life in the California
desert — but he fell in love
with daffodils. In his bind-
ers, he records what he’s
planted and when; he slips
seed and bulb packets into
clear plastic pockets so he
can reference the planting
instructions printed on their
backs.
From rock to blooms
The garden was all rock,
no soil when he started.
Now poppies are in their
last spring bloom and sum-
mer flowers like dahlias are
getting ready to put out
flowers. His goal is to have
a garden of perennials that
overlap, as one plant fades,
another begins to bloom.
He’s let a patch of bright
pink wild peas flourish.
Every day he walks down
the hill from his house to
check the garden’s progress,
to weed and water and build
it bit by bit.
“This is what I want to
do,” he says. “This keeps
me healthy and happy.”
— Katie Frankowicz