Paul Q. Hernandez

Paul was born 10-19-51 in Manhattan to Gerda (née Timmermann) and Angelo Hernandez. The family moved to the South Bronx when Paul was a young child and then to Flushing, Queens before settling in Shrub Oak in Westchester County. He attended Saint Helena’s High School and then Hunter College with merit-based free tuition. There he received a BA in Philosophy and Sociology. His schooling kept him out of the Vietnam War. He later attended NYU to study computer programming.

Paul held a broad range of jobs, including photographer (which he had learned from his maternal grandfather), foundry and steel worker, roadside corn salesman, nighttime toy factory worker, and IT auditor. It was when he was living in Volant, PA and working at Sharon Steel in Sharon, PA that he met his future wife, Gretchen van Nuys. They lived in Ridgewood, Queens, for several years before moving to Sparta in 1997 for Paul’s job at KPMG in Short Hills. At the time of his death, he was employed by Churchill Harriman and Occamsec.

In his free time Paul pursued photography, silk screening, language learning, traveling, wood working, bird watching and herpetology. He will always be remembered for his love of wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) and his insatiable wanderlust. He traversed Africa (hunting with the pygmies and getting Loa Loa, malaria and blood flukes along the way), visited Laos, and repeatedly toured Latin America with his two daughters. On these journeys they learned Spanish, taught English, rode in very crowded buses, and drank many café Americanos. Paul wrote research reports on wood turtles on a volunteer basis for the state of New Jersey DEP and could frequently be seen wandering Ogdensburg with his radio tracking device.

Paul is survived by his wife, Gretchen van Nuys; daughters Kira and Sascha; brother, George Timmerman; sister-in-law Cindy Moos; and his cousins, nieces, nephews and grand nieces and nephews. He is predeceased by his parents and by his brother M. Mark Hansen.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Sierra Club, GreenPeace or Planned Parenthood.

A memorial gathering will be held, Friday, January 27th, 2017 from 4-7pm at the Goble Funeral Home, 22 Main St, Sparta, NJ 07871