Ager House Restorer
Orville L. “Butch” Paulson Dies

Orville L. “Butch” Paulson, 70 died suddenly on Friday, February 15, 2008. Butch was born June 24, 1937, one of eight children of Orville and Vera Paulson. He grew up in Brodhead. After his honorable discharge from the U.S. Air Force, he joined his parents in California and started working in the flooring business with his father. While in California, he married
his wife, Eleanor “Ellie,” and they brought their five children to live in Wisconsin in 1968. For almost twenty
years, Butch worked as a property assessor and
as a caretaker at the Stewart family properties on Pine Lake. Butch was also a flooring expert, and he and Ellie owned Paulson Floor & Paint in Chetek for many years.

Butch was a very active volunteer in the Ager Association, and when his wife, Ellie, was the first Vice-President of the organization, Butch made enormous contributions to the restoration of the Ager House during those first key years. After the house was moved to Madison Street, Ellie and Butch parked their camper next to it so that they could get up early and work on the house all day and into the evening. Using their twenty-two years of experience as owners of Paulson Floor & Paint, Butch and Ellie helped rebuild walls, floors, and ceilings and installed wallpaper and carpeting exactly right for the house. In the weeks just before his death, Butch had been in the house sanding and refinishing the floors for the upstairs library.

Butch is survived by his wife, Ellie; his daughter, Dawn; his three sons, Gil, Randy, and Lane; nine grandchildren; and seven siblings.

He was preceded in death by his parents and his daughter, Elizabeth “Betsi” in 2001.

Funeral services were held on Wednesday,
February 20, 2008, at Chetek Lutheran Church

Butch Paulson