Dr. Paul Hatch Daines
The News Examiner, 9 March 2016, page 10
Paul Hatch Daines, MD, was born 26 Sep 1933 to Verna Rainey & Newel George Daines in Logan, Utah. He was the seventh of eleven children born into a family of over achievers. Not surprisingly he learned how to pout and his siblings gave him the nickname Pooder Paul. His father was both an LDS bishop and a successful attorney in Logan. His parents priorities were hard work, education and a love of God, not necessarily in that order.
He was educated primarily in the Logan school system, but spent one year in Salt Lake City as a boy, pining to return to Logan. In the family tradition, he entered Utah State University without a high school diploma and earned his Bachelor's Degree in short order. With many family examples, Paul also desired a higher education and was accepted to medical school at George Washington University in Washington DC. He spent the first year as a bachelor, but soon recognized that the needed and wanted a family.
He returned to Logan and sought out the girl of his dreams. He chased her to Los Angles, and found her on Catalina Island, where he made his proposal. Paul married Allene Kleinman on 6 Sep 1955 in the Logan LDS temple. They spent their honeymoon in Las Vegas, where the next night the hotel burned down. With such an auspicious beginning, their life together became one adventure after another!
During three more years of medical school and an internship at LDS hospital in Salt Lake City, they were blessed with three children. Then six more children came as Paul established his practice in Montpelier. Paul wanted his children to have the blessings of hard work, so he made sure they did. The family farm at Banks Valley kept his kids out of trouble for the most part. We had numerous animals, including a milk cow and many horses, which was a particular love of Paul's. He dabbled in show horses.
Paul's patriarchal blessing told him that he sang in the heavenly choir and he took that to heart. He loved music, singing, musicals and dancing, and was adept even in old age with his ukulele and trombone. He sang in church choirs, barbershop quartets and at hundreds of funerals. Paul organized innumerable programs for his community and church. he was a lifetime member of the LDS church and served in numerous positions. He sent four sons on missions and later in life, he and Allene served as a medical advisor for the Asia North Area.
Paul served as a physician to many thousands of people in the Bear Lake Valley over forty-one years of practice. He was particularly proud of the 4000 or more babies he delivered and the numerous lives he saved. He loved the people of the valley and never hesitated to answer the call for help, no matter the place or the time. As a country doc, he wanted to be able to do as much for his patients as possible. He obtained additional specialty training in the best medical centers around the world from Vienna to London, New York to Stanford University. He wanted to know the newest techniques in general surgery, head and neck cancer surgery and plastic and reconstructive surgery.
He was one of Interplast's original participants in providing medical services to third world countries and spent his time and treasure in bringing that care to those who otherwise wouldn't have had it. He was serving on Interplast's Board of Directors when the organization was awarded an Oscar for a documentary featuring their work in Vietnam. He always encouraged everyone to look around and see how they could live the admonition of Christ to love our neighbor.
Doc Daines lived a long and fruitful live.
He loved people and he loved his family. He was preceded in death by his
parents, a sister, a brother and his oldest son Paul Jr. He is survived by his
wife of sixty years, Allene, eight of his siblings, children, Laura, Scott,
Michael, Bruce, Shelly, Andrea, and Stephanie; thirty-three grandchildren and
twenty-five great grandchildren. Funeral services were held on Saturday
March 5th and interment was in the Montpelier Cemetery.