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Jerry Paulus

Jerry Paulus passed away after a long battle with cancer. Born in Virginia and lying about his age, Jerry spent one year in the Virginia National Guard in the 155 Howitzer Unit when he was 16 years old. He opted out to enlist in the Air Force for four years. They sent him to Fairchild Air Force Base in 1949 on the old Hiawatha bubble top train through Montana, Idaho and Washington. Seeing how big this country was at 17 years old, he said at that minute he was determined to live here and he’s been here for 64 years.

He was assigned to the 98th Bomb Wing 344th Squadron until they were ordered overseas during the Korean conflict. He was very fortunate to be one of six guys picked and assigned to re-open Forbes Air Force base in Topeka, Kan. He was a rescue and survival instructor until he was discharged in May of 1954, when he came back to Spokane.

He spent the bulk of his career with Union Oil and Quaker State Corp. traveling the western United States and Alaska. The love of his life was hunting, fishing and trapshooting, of which, trapshooting was his favorite.

Jerry was a tremendous trapshooter, receiving many honors and awards in his career. He started as an associate member of the Old Spokane Police Trap Club. When it closed, he moved and became a member of the Spokane Gun Club. During his tenure as a member there he served in all executive positions as an officer and on the board of directors for many years, even filling out terms of other presidents when needed. He also served on the board of directors for the Washington State Trapshooting Association in all executive positions and as a director for many years. Bob Del Fay of Shooting Sports Foundation called Jerry when he was president of the Spokane Gun Club. Together, and along with Johnny Falk of Winchester Arms, set up the first five stand sporting clay range at Spokane Gun Club. A brief history of the mid-1980s was written by Jean Walker about the Gun Club and is buried in a time capsule not to be opened for 100 years.

He also served on the board of directors for Twin Lakes Property Owners Association and took control of building their state-of-the-art maintenance facility during his tenure of living there from 1995 to 2004. He served on the board of directors at the Coeur d’Alene Public Golf Course and he said his service was to make up for his atrocious golf game!

From there he moved to the Hauser Lake Gun Club, where he served as the president and director for five years. During that time, due to a code violation issued by the City of Hauser attempting to curtail shooting operations, Jerry, Dale Pritzel and Mr. Dwight Van Horn spent approximately five years defending the club. The result of this suit ended in a favorable and unanimous Idaho Supreme Court decision in favor of Hauser Lake Gun Club, enabling them to get their attorney fees paid and to stand up for small gun clubs across the country. This decision sets another precedent favoring the small gun clubs against overbearing government rights violations.

Jerry is survived by his wife, Chris; children, Jodi Urquidez and Barry Paulus; grandchildren, Jami Tuter, Jerrod Paulus, Jenna and Jacqueline Urquidez and many other grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Jerry’s wish is that people treat each other with love and respect in lieu of donations.

A celebration of his life will be held at 1 p.m., Saturday, May 26, 2018, at the Spokane Gun Club. English Funeral Chapel, Post Falls, has been entrusted with the final arrangements.