Elmer C. Paulson, MD
October 18, 1911 ? October 17, 2006
Kind and gentle husband, father,
and grandfather.
He died peacefully, in his home in St. Paul, Minnesota, just one day shy of his 95th birthday. Elmer Clarence Paulson was born in Hills, Minnesota, the first child of Bertha Salveson Paulson and Dr. Theodore Paulson. Tragedy struck early, when his young mother was killed in a tornado in 1918. The family lived in Tyler and, later, Fergus Falls, Minnesota, where Elmer graduated from high school as class valedictorian in 1929. He graduated from St. Olaf College (Summa Cum Laude, Valedictorian) in 1933 and from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1937, where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha (honorary medical fraternity). Later in life, St. Olaf College honored him with its Distinguished Alumnus Award. Dr. Paulson began medical practice as a country doctor in Dalton, Minnesota, in 1939. In 1940, he married Ethel Mobroten of Forbes, Minnesota. He was called to serve in the armed forces in 1942 and spent four years in the US Army Medical Corps in Portland, Oregon. He was discharged in 1946 as a major. After the War, he returned with his growing family to Minnesota and settled in Elbow Lake. Later, he again attended the University of Minnesota Medical School, where he completed a Fellowship in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. His radiology practice began in Worthington, Minnesota, and in 1953, he joined St. Paul Radiology, practicing there until his retirement in 1980. During that period, he also taught at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He was a pioneer in the field of nuclear medicine.
Dr. Paulson continued to teach during his retirement, and volunteered his time as a radiologist at the Shriners? Hospital for Children. Preceding him in death are his brothers, Herbert, Gordon, and Theodore. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Ethel, his children, Stanley (Bonnie), Bruce (Janice), Rolf (Linda), and Elizabeth Miller (John), and his grandchildren, Todd, Sonja, and Brian Paulson, Martin, Kai, and Margit Miller, and Greg and Simon Shearer. Baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran Church, Dr. Paulson remained a stalwart member of his congregation. He will be remembered for his keen intelligence, his generosity and compassion, his love of medicine as well as music, his talent for foreign languages as well as woodworking, his understated sense of humor, and for the great delight he took in his wife, children, and grandchildren. The family would like especially to thank Dan Reed for five years of steadfast and devoted care. Service Friday, 11:00 A.M. at GLORIA DEI LUTHERAN CHURCH, 700 South Snelling Avenue. Visitation one hour prior to the service. Interment Fort Snelling National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to the University of Minnesota Medical Foundation.
Bradshaw
678 South Snelling Avenue
651-698-3878