bout de papier, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2008) — Summer 2008 // Été 2008, p. 22
He left us far too soon. After a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis, Paul Whelan died on December 4, 2007.
Paul would have been great at any job. Luckily for us, he joined the Foreign Service. A brilliant thinker, a relentless innovator, and a caring friend and colleague, Paul was passionate about his work, and his enthusiasm for bringing about positive change was infectious. Sometimes Paul’s ideas weren’t readily accepted — he was always slightly ahead of his time — but his contribution to public service over a 32-year career was remarkable.
Paul was also supremely devoted to his family. His wife, Mary Katherine, accompanied him on all eight of his postings. They raised their three sons, Michael, Brendan and Gregory, on four continents. Paul firmly believed in striking a healthy work/home balance (he often turfed his staff out of the office at 5 p.m.) and he brought to his family life the same mix of fun, creativity and leadership that he unfailingly applied in the workplace.
Born to Canadian parents in Santa Monica, California, Paul grew up mainly in Windsor, Ontario. He studied at the University of Toronto. After one year of Architecture, he majored in Geography at St. Michael’s College, where he met Mary Katherine.
From the start, he was an adventurer. He loved hiking, cycling, travelling. During university Paul took a year off to explore South America and learn Spanish. After graduation he ended up in Dublin, where he worked at the Irish post office and a German bicycle shop. It was in Ireland that Paul was recruited for the Foreign Service. He wrote the entrance exam at the High Commission in London and, when called back for an interview, he borrowed a suit from a friend who worked as an apprentice undertaker. He was hired by Manpower and Immigration in 1975.
The Whelans’ first two postings were at times harrowing. They arrived in Buenos Aires just after the coup d’état in 1976, and lived through the darkest days of Argentina’s military dictatorship. Paul’s tasks included visiting detention centres to select refugees from among the Dirty War’s political prisoners. Near the end of their next posting in Tel Aviv, Paul accompanied the military attaché to observe Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
Then came assignments in Vienna, Ottawa and Rome. The Whelans felt particularly at home in Italy (a dangerous country to visit, Paul warned, because you’ll never want to leave). They enrolled the three boys at the American school, which at the time was in disarray. Paul chaired the school’s board of directors and, together with a group of other concerned parents, raised fresh finances, hired new teachers, and reformed the curriculum. In a few months they turned the school around, saving it from collapse. Paul was a man who looked for solutions, not problems.
At the Canadian Consulate General in Buffalo in the late 1990s, Paul spearheaded. a new concept in immigration processing, the Regional Program Centre. The RPC coordinated application intake for visa offices across the United States, at one point handling close to a quarter of CIC’s overseas caseload. Paul also became an expert on Canada—US border issues, and his opinion was often sought by senior decision makers in Ottawa.
As the Immigration Program Manager in Guatemala and later Bogota, Paul became reimmersed in Latin American culture and Canada’s refugee program. In Guatemala, he reported extensively on the Puebla Process and served as an OAS observer during the national elections. In Colombia he oversaw the screening of visa applicants for war crimes in a complex political and military setting.
I had the good fortune to work with Paul during his last posting in Moscow. He arrived in September 2006 and quickly launched a flurry of initiatives, most of them aimed at enhancing client service. But the one dearest to his heart was revamping the Immigration Annex. This allowed 20 of our employees to move out of two cramped prefab offices, one perched atop the other. Paul’s architectural training came in handy during the renovations. Buoyant and determined, he ensured that every nook and cranny of our modest building became both functional and (to the extent possible) attractive. The project was typically Paul. He cared deeply about people and did his utmost to make sure his staff was treated decently.
Through it all, family was paramount. An old CV lists Paul’s favourite hobby as “three small sons.” He was forever trying to add a bit of magic to their lives. Once he whisked them off to Strasbourg so they could parade around town with a baguette under their arms like Charlie Brown in a movie they’d seen. He’d often take the boys on trips one at a time, to make them each feel special. Paul was a wonderful father, and he and Mary Katherine were an amazing team.
Paul was never short of words, and there is no shortage of words to describe Paul. Articulate, funny, innovative, compassionate, generous, supportive, trustworthy, industrious, ethical, optimistic, ebullient, gracious. Paul was bursting with talent and ideas. He had an unquenchable thirst for life, but met death with courage and equanimity. His early passing was an enormous shock and he will be terribly missed by friends, colleagues, and, above all, his adoring family.
Thank you, Paul, for shining so brightly.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2008) — Summer 2008 // Été 2008, p. 22. Read the rest of this issue →
