Paul Eugene Kyllonen

pallbearers carry Paul Kyllonen's body to the LMG
Members of the Palmer Station community carry Paul's remains toward the Laurence M. Gould.

Paul Eugene Kyllonen, age 57, died due to natural causes at about 1130 local time (UTC-3) on Tuesday 23 October. He had arrived on station with the first group of the summer crew on 6 October. Here is the NSF press release.

In addition to his three previous Palmer winters--1998 as an equipment operator/mechanic and 2002 and 2003 as power plant mechanic, he'd also worked at McMurdo and Pole, participated in the South Pole Traverse, and also worked in Greenland.

Below, a photo of Paul during his 2003 winter:

Paul Kyllonen during the 2003 winter

Paul Kyllonen
Paul Kyllonen

The photo at left is from the initial 1 November death announcement in The Ely Echo of Ely, MN, where Paul had been born and raised. The photo of Paul at right is from the 29 March 2019 Echo article, which gives more information about Paul, including the fact that he'd been living in Fort Collins, CO...and also provides information about the 26 April celebration of his life in Ely.

The two photos at the top of this page are by and from Zenobia Evans, used by permission.