RIP Paul Needell AKA Shockey

Wow... Damn...

RIP Shockey.

 

Sorry to hear this. RIP Shockey.

 

Due to my "previous life" as a university financial aid director, we exchanged a number of notes re: admission processes, FA forms, etc. for his son. His love of his family, his desire to see his boys achieve, were inspiring. My heart hurts for his family. RIP, Shockey.

 

Man, this sucks. RIP Paul.

I went back and look at a PM conversation I had with him after spnited passed, and he had bared his soul in a post after he was a few beers past his 1/2-beer limit.

He said when his time came, he wanted people to look back and admire "Paul" and "shockey," and never use it as an "alter ego," because he tried to be genuine in everything he did and wanted to be liked here as much as he was in "real life."

He also talked about how he felt like an imposition with his long, heartfelt posts about his family or his life. And he was thankful when some of his "blabber," as he put it, struck a chord with someone.

I think he'd be very happy to realize just how much people admired him and will remember him for just the type of thing he felt self-conscious about.

 

I like Goodell more than I previously did based on what he did for Paul.

 

I had seen the news and read the above-linked article before I came to this thread. I had no idea it was shockey I was reading about. Very sad news. RIP Paul.

 

Paul is one of the few people with whom I engaged in PM conversations on this site. We grew up a decade apart in the same neighborhood, had a number of people in common and and graduated from the same high school. A genuinely decent man who got dealt an awful hand.

A year or so ago, I told him that I would burn and send him a copy of a Springsteen bootleg that I had. I wondered why I never heard from him about it. When I was cleaning out my car a few months back, I found the package wedged under my seat and one of the CDs had cracked. I meant to apologize to Paul and send him the show but it totally slipped my mind.

 

This is horrible news. I had a few very nice exchanges with shockey on this board, and always admired how genuine and heartfelt everything he wrote was, even if I disagreed with it. Peace to his family and friends.

 

One of the first PMs I did on here was to Paul because he said he had a great Bob Sheppard story, so I asked him about it. He was great enough to respond to a newb.

Turns out, through mutual friends, he was able to get Sheppard to do a tape announcing each member of Paul's wedding party, including announcing the bride and groom, which brought down the house.

Years later, Paul bumped into Sheppard and thanked him for the tape. Sheppard remembered him, and asked if he was still married.

Paul responded that he was, with three kids, and Sheppard responded, " that's all the thanks I need."

RIP Shockey

 

Very sad. RIP, sir.

 

RIP, shockey. May you and spnited and the others we've lost be able to enjoy a cold one together in the great beyond.