Former Prince George city manager George Paul has died following a long-running battle with cancer.
Paul, who was the city's manager for 17 years beginning in 1989 when he and his family moved here from Penticton, is being remembered as someone who was a people person.
"There are a lot of people who can do the job from a technical point of view but it was his ability to work with people and to get everybody together on the same page and create that kind of friendly, collegial attitude and environment," said Cliff Dezell, who sat on the hiring committee that selected Paul and was a council member for most of Paul's time as city manager.
Paul was manager at a time when Prince George went through some major changes. The Civic Centre, CN Centre and the Prince George Aquatic Centre were built on the city's coin, as was construction of University Way up to the University of Northern British Columbia.
The city's snow removal program also went through a major transformation. Its cost is now covered by a separate levy and a combination of city-owned and contracted equipment now also clears driveway entrances as they progress along the city's 630 kilometres of roads and streets.
"He was up to his neck in muck an bullets," said former Prince George mayor John Backhouse, who also sat on the hiring committee as did Colin Kinsley, who became mayor after Backhouse retired from the position.
Behind the scenes, Paul had a fondness for practical jokes, often involving his wristwatch.
"George had this thing about tossing his watch down on the floor and seeing who picked it up and how they reacted to that," Backhouse said. "And he did it all over the place. He did it in public places, he did it in private places and I asked him a couple of times 'where did this come from, where did you start this?' and he'd never tell me."
On one occasion, Backhouse opened the blinds on his office window at city hall and found Paul's watch on the outside ledge onto which Paul had lowered it from the roof.
On another, he somehow convinced then Pacific Western Brewery manager Tom Leboe to put one of Paul's watches into a can of beer that was then put in Backhouse's fridge.
When Backhouse cracked open the can, it exploded and sprayed over. Backhouse thought that odd given PWB's quality control - until he found out Paul's watch was inside.
Everyone laughed so hard they had tears in their eyes, said Kinsley who was at Backhouse's home when Paul's plan was carried out.
Asked in a 2006 interview why he left the sunny Okanagan for Prince George, Paul noted he grew up in a pulp mill town in northern Ontario and spent many of his formative years in Port Alberni, another town with large pulp mill operations.
"When you come to Prince George and you see the stacks from the pulp mills, you know you're in comfortable territory," Paul said.
After stepping down from the job, Paul and his wife Pat moved to Nanaimo where he ran a consulting business. He died earlier this week following a long battle with pancreatic cancer, Kinsley said.
Flags at city hall flew at half mast on Thursday in Paul's memory.
