Ernest Paul Woodings, 74

Ernest Paul Woodings, loving and beloved husband, step-father and friend, passed away at home on Tuesday, December 13, 2011. He was 74 years old.
 
Paul was born on April 1, 1937, the only child of Ena Gardiner (Silverwood) and John Richard Woodings, in Sandal, Yorkshire, England. Ena played the piano for silent movies and played in an all-women’s band during WWII. John was a barber. Together they owned cinemas, a private lending library and a candy store. Paul attended Ackworth Boarding School from 1948 to 1955 and medical school at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland from 1955 to 1961.
 
He obtained many medical degrees and qualifications including Medical Doctor (M.B., Ch.B.), Diplomas in Child Health and Industrial Health, Member of Faculty of Occupational Medicine, and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. His work included hospital appointments in the National Health Service in Northern Ireland, Scotland and England; Head of Clinical Pharmacology for Glaxo Group Research (Paul was the first person to test the well-known drug Zantac on humans); Deputy Chief Medical Officer for British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Regional Medical Officer for British Telecom Headquarters in London.
 
Paul retired from medicine in 1992 and went on to study Norwegian Language, Comparative Scandinavian Languages and History, Art History, Architectural History, History of Music, and the English Languages at the University of Edinburgh. In 2000 he received a M.A. with distinction.
 
An enthusiastic and experienced sailor, Paul received two Yachtsman Certificates, one in offshore and one in ocean sailing. He and a friend co-owned a boat for many years and sailed extensively in the British Isles, the Norwegian Sea and the North Sea. He didn’t like racing, rather he preferred living on and traveling by yacht, navigating and discovering new ports along the way.

When he was seventeen years old Paul traveled and camped in Norway with a school friend and began a lifetime love affair with the Norwegian people, culture and landscape. He liked to think he was a decendant of the Vikings that settled in York. His first partner in life, Josephine Andrews, taught English to Norwegians in London. Josie died unexpectedly of cancer in 1991.
 
Paul met Karen Helland in 1993 at the International Summer School at the University of Oslo where they were both studying Norwegian Art History taught by St. Olaf Art History Professor Reidar Dittmann. They became friends and for several years exchanged annual Christmas letters. By the year 2000, when they were married, they sent several emails a day while Paul was finishing his degree at Edinburgh University.
 
Paul became a permanent resident of the United States while retaining his UK citizenship. He had his concerns about the US, but he loved Northfield. He was active in the Northfield Arts Guild Theater where he introduced the British dame to Northfield audiences in the role of Mrs. Chrissy Crusoe, Robinson Crusoe’s mother, in the British pantomime Robinson Crusoe, pink tutu and all. He also played the roles of Friar and Sexton in Much Ado About Nothing, Rev. Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest, Selsdon Mowbray and The Burglar in Noises Off, Jacques in As You Like It, Van Helsing inDracula, and one of the ugly step-sisters in a second British pantomime, Cinderella. He had to leave that role due to his cancer diagnosis in 2006. He was also instrumental in setting up the computer center at the Northfield Senior Center and taught beginning computer classes there for several years.
 
Paul and Karen spent eleven wonderful years together, dancing their way around the world on cruise ships to Alaska and Hawaii, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and South America. They traveled to China and spent six weeks in the UK visiting family and friends. For many winters they have spent a week with friends on Cayman Island, and recently bought a small oasis in the Arizona desert.
 
Paul loved his family very much. Having no siblings or children of his own, he was grateful for his new-found family here. He is survived by his loving wife Karen Helland, his two step-children, Chloe Helland and Jan Saxhaug, and a large close-knit extended family in the US. He will be remembered always as waking up every morning to “another day in paradise!” Carpe diem.
 
There will be a service of celebration and remembrance for Paul on Sunday, December 18th, at 2 pm at the First United Church of Christ located at 300 Union St., Northfield, Minnesota. Memorials are preferred to Save the Children, Hospice Foundation of America, CaringBridge.org, Health Finders Collaborative of Northfield, or the Northfield Arts Guild.

Arrangements are with the Benson & Langehough Funeral Home.