Paul Hatch Daines, MD, was born September 26, 1933, to Verna Rainey Daines and Newel George Daines in Logan, Utah. He was the seventh of eleven children born into a family of overachievers. Not surprisingly, he learned how to pout and his siblings gave him the nickname Pooder Paul. His father was both an LDS bishop and a successful attorney in Logan. His parent's priorities were hard work, education, and a love of God...not necessarily in that order. He was educated primarily in the Logan school system but spent one year in Salt Lake City as a boy, pining to return to Logan. In the family tradition, he entered Utah State University without a high school diploma and earned his Bachelor's Degree in short order. With many family examples, Paul also desired a higher education and was accepted to medical school at George Washington University in Washington D.C. He spent the first year as a bachelor, but soon recognized that he needed and wanted a family. He returned to Logan and sought out the girl of his dreams. He chased her to Los Angeles, and found her on Catalina Island, where he made his proposal. Paul married Allene Kleinman on September 6, 1955, in the Logan LDS temple. They spent their honeymoon in Las Vegas, where the next night the hotel burned down! With such an auspicious beginning, their life together became one adventure after another! During three more years of medical school and an internship at LDS hospital in Salt Lake City, they were blessed with three children. Then six more children came as Paul established his practice in Montpelier, Idaho. Although they always wanted a dozen children, they had to settle for a mere nine. Even with nine children, anyone was invited to the family home, at any time, and for almost any reason. At various times at least twenty-five (this is in dispute, with some counting up to fifty) children, cousins, friends, or friends of a friend lived with our family, enjoying Paul's particular brand of fun, hard work, and music. Consequently, Paul and Allene had school-age children in their home for fifty straight years.

Paul wanted his children to have the blessings of hard work, so he made sure they did. The family farm at Banks Valley kept his kids out of trouble, for the most part. We had numerous farm animals, including a milk cow (twice daily hand milking is a blessing we all enjoyed), and many horses, which was a particular love of Paul's. He dabbled in show horses, and bragged that he could ride any horse, which we never saw disproved.

Paul's patriarchal blessing told him that he sang in the heavenly choir and he took that to heart. He loved music, singing, musicals, dancing, and was adept even in old age with his ukulele and trombone. He sang in church choirs, barbershop quartets, and at hundreds of funerals. Paul organized innumerable programs for his community and church. He was a lifetime member of the LDS church, and served in numerous positions. He sent four sons on missions, and later in life he and Allene also served as a medical advisor for the Asia North Area.

Paul was a natural organizer and motivator who could seemingly get the most out of every acquaintance and friend. He was the primary organizer/producer of a decades long celebration of the Bear Lake Rendezvous, hosted on the Oregon trail above the family farm in Banks Valley.

Paul served as a physician to many thousands of people in the Bear Lake Valley over forty-one years of practice. He was particularly proud of the 4,000 or more babies he delivered and the numerous lives he saved. He loved the people of the valley and never hesitated to heed the call for help, no matter the place or the time. As a country doc, he wanted to be able to do as much for his patients as possible. Therefore, he obtained additional specialty training in the best medical centers around the world from Vienna to London, New York to Stanford University. He wanted to know the newest techniques in general surgery, head and neck cancer surgery, and plastic and reconstructive surgery. He was one of Interplast's original participants in providing medical services to third world countries and spent his time and treasure in bringing that care to those who otherwise wouldn't have had it. He was serving on Interplast's Board of Directors when the organization was awarded an Oscar for a documentary featuring their work in Vietnam. He always encouraged everyone to look around and see how they could live the admonition of Christ to love our neighbor.

Paul's life was filled with adventures all over the globe, but these always involved some form of public service. He didn't take vacations-he went somewhere to do something for someone. It drove his family nuts, but it meant that he had friends all over the world. He could tell you about all of his friends from all over the world. If you believed Paul, they were all his best friend.

Doc Daines lived a long and fruitful life. He loved people, and he loved his family. He was preceded in death by his parents, a sister, a brother, and his oldest son Paul Jr. He is survived by his wife of sixty years, Allene; eight of his siblings; his children, Laura (Lenny) Tatro, Scott (Kendall), Michael (Janice), Bruce, Shelly (Bruce) Wallentine, Andrea (Lee), Clark (Angela), and Stephanie; thirty-three grandchildren; and twenty-five great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be on Saturday, March 5th at 11:30 am in the Montpelier Tabernacle on 612 Washington St. A viewing will be held the night before on Friday, March 4th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at Schwab-Matthews Mortuary (702 Clay St) and prior to the services on Saturday from 9:00 to 10:30 am also in the mortuary . Interment will be in the Montpelier Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the California/Oregon Trail Center Museum, Stagecoach Pavilion.