Paul Chaput

Elmer Paul Chaput, born December 7, 1918 in Calumet, Michigan, died June 30, 2011 in Austin at 92. Paul had lived and worked in the oil and gas industry in Calgary, Canada, Midland, Kansas City, Houston, and San Antonio.

Raised in Detroit, Michigan, he played and lettered in four high-school sports and declined a football scholarship to the University of Michigan in order to attend the University of Notre Dame. He worked his way through college, earning bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees in organic chemistry. Because of a football injury, he was unable to qualify for active duty in World War II, and instead worked on research to develop artificial quinine, a key priority for the United States as the war deprived the country of a reliable supply of naturally produced quinine that was essential for medicines and other products.

In 1947, he married Jane Lowman, forming a bond that lasted 49 years, until her death in 1997. Their three children, Laurel, Linda, and Paul, survive him, as do his five beloved grandchildren, Joseph Hefta, Molly Bright, Christina Deal, Ben Chaput, and Matthew Chaput, his four great-grandchildren, Liam Hefta, Gabriel Hefta, Lucas Bright, and Ben Bright, his daughter-in-law, Cathy Chaput, and his son-in-law, Philip Uri Treisman.

Paul began his professional career in the chemical industry, but was invited by his company to help them to enter an exciting new field for them: the oil business. He traveled throughout Europe, Central America, and South America examining prospects for his company, and opened an oil exploration office in Calgary, Canada, during a period of major oil discoveries in North America. He led the office for 7 years, delighted by the work and by the interesting entrepreneurs from all over the world who had come to Canada, forming lifelong friendships before returning to the United States, where he and his family settled in Midland. He ended his career in the oil and gas industry in San Antonio and retired with his wife to Tucson, where they lived until her death there, in 1997. He continued to live there until 2010, when he moved to Austin.

Throughout his life, he was deeply sustained by his Roman Catholic faith. And he was driven by a sense of service to others, whether family, friends, colleagues, clients, or community. His interest in people, and his delight in their life stories, was inexhaustible.

Memorial Mass will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 5, 2011 at St. Mary Cathedral, 203 E. 10th Street, Austin.