Paul Michael Kinsley

Paul Michael Kinsley was born on May 12, 1953, the youngest of five children to Ronald and Frances (Bilyeu) Kinsley of Tacoma, Washington. During his youth, he was involved in many sports, but his favorite was baseball. His early memories recalled hours spent after school and most evenings in the backyard hitting and retrieving balls with his Dad. He graduated from Bellarmine High School in Tacoma, WA, and his skill as a baseball catcher landed him a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates where he played professionally with their minor league teams for two years. An injury ended his baseball catching career and he returned to the West Coast to complete college at the University of Portland in Portland, OR.

After graduation, Paul began a 20-year career in the insurance industry, starting with a small company in Tacoma, and then joining the insurance company of Frank B. Haul in downtown Seattle. With the subsequent move to a larger insurance company, Alexander & Alexander, Paul moved his young family including two sons, Keith and Jack, to Anchorage, Alaska.

This was a highlight time for Paul – he thrived in the boundless and rugged atmosphere of Alaska. One of the highlights of his recent years was that he was able to return to Anchorage for the infamous Fur Rendezvous with his two grown sons, son-in-law, and grandson. It became a trip-of-a-lifetime memory for him. During his four-year stint in Alaska, Paul’s work focused on providing insurance coverage for the fishing industry which included actually going out with the fishing fleets on the wild waters of Alaska to process claims. During this time, he also became involved with the University of Alaska Anchorage Sports program and helped coordinate the Great Alaska Shootout in the early 1980’s. This program brought large NCAA Division I basketball programs (the likes of Marquette, Louisville, Vanderbilt, North Carolina State, Arkansas, and Kansas) to Anchorage for an early season tournament from 1981 to 1984. In 1985, the Frank B. Haul company recruited Paul again and the family transferred back to the Seattle area.

Over the next few years, Paul coached several of his sons’ baseball teams and discovered possibly his only true hobby outside of playing and coaching baseball – collecting baseball cards! During a life change in the early 1990’s, Paul moved to Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and began working for a small private insurance company. To promote both business and church locally, he became involved with the Jaycees helping to organize a community-wide carnival and a free-of-charge fireworks extravaganza.

When his high-school age sons chose to live with him full-time, he left the corporate world to focus on raising them. In 1993, he moved to be nearer to family in Britton, South Dakota, and took on the role of farm hand with the full ranching experience. He also served as an in-station radio DJ, running programming from 6 pm to midnight until an opportunity opened to cover local sports events. Again, Paul found his element. He loved packing up the old bag phone, setting up the headsets, and dialing into the station for the phone-fed announcing of basketball and football games across much of Northeastern South Dakota and Minnesota.

As the boys headed off to college, Paul resumed his education and received the first of three master’s degrees in Special Education at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD and later at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. In 1998, he accepted a teaching position at the Alternative Learning School in Montevideo, MN and quickly rose to director. During his time in Montevideo, Paul remarried and the couple had twin sons, Ryley and Mychal in 2000.

Along the many paths of life, Paul adjusted course and in 2006 met Deborah Stull. In Deb, he finally found the compliment to his spirit of purpose and advocacy. On September 20, 2008, Deb and Paul were married in Taylors Falls, MN, creating a blended family of 7 children that has blossomed to 12 grandchildren. For several years they resided in Marine on St. Croix, MN before purchasing a home in Balsam Lake, Wisconsin. During this time, Paul served as director of two charter schools in the St. Paul, MN area. This experience catapulted his pursuit of finding ways of helping charter schools navigate the turbulent waters of financial and operations management, and he continued as a financial consultant for as many as 14 schools at any given time over the past 12 years.

Paul was a man of deep faith, warmth, integrity, and generosity. Those who knew him will forever remember his warm hugs, steadfast loyalty, passion for baseball, and generous spirit. He had a remarkable ability to make everyone around him feel valued and loved, whether through his sense of humor, his wise advice, or his quiet acts of service. He was a cheerful participant for Deb on any outing to a garden store, willing loader of 50 bags of mulch for a Young Life camp benefit, and caring for their beloved animals (Maddie, Kirby, Zach, Bailey, and Clare).

Paul and Deb loved to make roadtrips and traveled frequently with family, friends and cherished pets. They delighted in four trips to Ireland and Holland, visited several of the Great Lakes, and even made an impromptu trip to North Carolina to pick up the perfect painting supplies for Deb’s art and Paul’s complimentary framing business. Or they were chasing their grandchildren’s events – sometimes making three or four different stops in a single day, or diligently caring for an aging parent. In March 2024, they moved to a much-loved acreage and so enjoyed making their new home together in New Richmond, WI.

Paul, age 71, passed away unexpectedly on March 22, 2025, at 4:30 p.m., at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, MN, He leaves behind a lifetime of memories filled with joy, laughter, and unconditional love. Taken at seemingly too young an age, and with certainly more plans made, Paul’s walk Home caught us all by surprise. He is survived by his wife of 16 years Deborah, and their children: Keith (Angi) Kinsley; Krista Meier; Jack Kinsley; Jenn (Luke) Carlson; Daniel (Krista) Erickson; Ryley Kinsley and Mychal Kinsley; and their 12 grandchildren: Kollette, Anabelle, Grace and Andrew Kinsley; Riley and Jaxson Meier; Haddon, Schaeffer, Casper and Mia Carlson: Brecken and Lyndie Erickson; sister Marilyn (Kinsley) Hirsh, and a wealth of cherished family and friends and a passionate faith community. Paul was preceded in death by his parents; brothers Keith and Patrick; granddaughter Kollette; and sadly, almost immediately following him to heaven, was his sister Mavis (Kinsley) Branham.

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, April 10, 2025, at 11:00 a.m., with visitation the hour before at 10:00 a.m. at the Bradshaw Celebration of Life Center in Stillwater. MN. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Woodland Hills Church Food Shelf.