Paul Philip Percival

Paul Philip Percival

A funeral service for Paul Percival, 91, of Lusk, will be held Monday, March 3, 2003, 2 p.m. at St. George Episcopal Church in Lusk. Interment will follow in the Lusk Cemetery.

Paul Percival died Feb. 22, 2003, in Palm Springs, Calif.

Paul Philip Percival was born Dec. 20, 1922, at the Percival Ranch 23 miles northeast of Lusk, the third child of five born to Garth Damon and Edna Vernona Percival.

He attended grade school and two years of high school in the country, his mother being his teacher some of the time. Paul graduated from Lusk High School in 1929 and attended the University of Wyoming for two years studying engineering.

In 1932 he went to work for the Wyoming Highway Department and worked 10 years in several Wyoming communities. While working in Sundance, he received his Wyoming Surveyors License. Also in Sundance he met Elizabeth (Betty) Thompson and they were married Oct. 15, 1938, in Deadwood, S.D.

Paul's father died in 1944 while he was working in Denver, Colo. for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. His mother asked him to come back to Wyoming to run the ranch and the family moved in November 1944.

Paul was an active member of St. George Episcopal Church, a 32nd Degree Mason and Past Master of Harmony Lodge #24, a charter member of the Lusk Elks, served nine years on the Niobrara County School Board, served as a County Commissioner, and was active in the Wyoming Stock Growers where he was chairman of the Water Committee. He also served the State of Wyoming as a governor's appointee to DEPAD.

He was instrumental in laying out many underground water wells, surveying irrigation circles and getting permits for nearly every circle in Niobrara County.

The Percivals sold their ranch in 1979 and moved into Lusk. They traveled and spent 23 winters in Palm Springs, Calif., where Paul enjoyed golfing. He continued his survey work until age 90.

Survivors include his wife of 64 years; a daughter, Dorothy Rae Whiteaker and her husband Don of Lusk; a son Bill Percival and his wife Gayleen of Palm Springs, Calif.; five grandchildren, Marybeth Nelson of Broomfield, Colo., Tom Whiteaker of San Mateo, Calif., Doug Percival of Orlando, Fla., Krista Aldrich of La Jolla, Calif., and Philip Percival of Palm Desert, Calif. three great-grandchildren, Jeffrey, Joseph, and Abbey Nelson and a sister Flora Dietzman of Gallup, N.M.

He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers and a sister.

Memorials may be made to St. George Episcopal Church or the Niobrara Senior Center in Lusk.

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