{"id":2801,"date":"2015-07-29T09:50:28","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T09:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bkpdefunts.smainternational.info\/?p=2801"},"modified":"2015-07-29T09:50:28","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T09:50:28","slug":"monsieur-paul-dickrell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/?p=2801","title":{"rendered":"Monsieur Paul DICKRELL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Missions Africaines<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"DICKRELL<\/td>\nn\u00e9 le 1er mars 1962 \u00e0 Marschfield
dans l\u2019Etat du Wisconsin (USA) 
membre associ\u00e9 le 19 avril 1998
d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 le 10 ao\u00fbt 1999<\/td>\n		\n

1992-1994 volontaire dans le Peace Corps au Congo
1998-1999 missionnaire associ\u00e9 \u00e0 la SMA au Liberia<\/p>\n

d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 \u00e0 Monrovia, Liberia, le 10 ao\u00fbt 1999, 
\u00e0 l’\u00e2ge de 37 ans<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Monsieur Paul Joseph DICKRELL (1962 – 1999)<\/p>\n

Paul Joseph Dickrell was born in Marshfield, Wisconsin, USA, on March 1, 1962.
He died in an airplane crash at Monrovia, Liberia, on August 10, 1999.<\/p>\n

Paul was the son of Joan Dickrell Seavecki and Theodore Dickrell. He graduated from Auburndale High School and Winona State University. Making his home in Wisconsin he was active in St. Stephen\u2019s parish, Stephens Point. In 1992 he joined the Peace Corps, spending two years in Congo (Brazzaville), developing fish farming projects with local farmers. Midway through his service civil conflict forced his evacuation along with other volunteers but they completed their terms in another part of Congo. Deeply affected by his experience, upon returning home he wrote: \u2018I will never again own a car or buy anything I do not really need. There are too many people out there without the basic necessities of life.\u2019 Skilled with his hands, he returned to Stevens Point and put his talents to work doing maintenance at St. Stephen’s Church. In addition he immersed himself in beekeeping, woodworking, bicycle building and other pursuits that sought greater harmony with the environment. He was also involved in the Wisconsin Special Olympics.<\/p>\n

During these years Paul became increasingly interested in returning to Africa in a ministry-related capacity in contrast to the humanitarian orientation of the Peace Corps. Fr. Dennis Lynch, his pastor at St. Stephens, directed Paul\u2019s attention to the SMA. In September 1997 Paul joined the Society\u2019s lay missionary formation program at Takoma Park, Maryland and was commissioned on April 19, 1998. He was then assigned to the diocese of Cape Palmas in Liberia. Having had previous experience of fish farming in Congo, he was posted to the Bonike Leprosy Center \u2013 some 23 miles from Harper – where there had been fishponds before the Liberian civil strife. Paul and his helpers created a reservoir and twelve fishponds that provide a much-needed source of protein-rich food for the Bonike residents (There were twenty-two lepers in the colony and some sixty-five children and family members). Skilled in carpentry and construction, Paul also built a clinic and multi-purpose room. Moreover he supervised to construction of a channel to prevent land erosion and guide the torrential waters of the rainy season and reconstructed a road made impassable by war. To further increase the mobility of the Bonike people, he planned to teach a bicycle assembly and maintenance workshop, so the people would have a means of transportation to the nearest town which was five miles away. His ultimate goal was to see the people of Bonike self-sufficient.<\/p>\n

Paul had a Franciscan mode of spirituality, with a deep reverence for all of creation. Living in a single room behind the chapel, he rigged up some solar lighting and adapted to the native diet of rice, greens and fish. Known for his soft-spoken gentleness, Paul displayed great compassion for those afflicted with leprosy and was regarded by his fellow missionaries as a \u2018ray of light\u2019 to the people he served in his challenging assignment<\/p>\n

Paul and six others died in the crash of an eight-seater Cessna plane on a journey from Harper to Monrovia, when the pilot tried to land after dark at the unlit Robertsfield Airport near Monrovia. There were no survivors. On board the plane was the chief of Liberia\u2019s national police force, Joe Tate, a cousin of President Charles Taylor. According to a request made by Paul when he joined the Society, his funeral and burial were in Liberia. A concelebrated Mass was held on August 18, 1999 in Our Lady of Lebanon Catholic Church, Monrovia. Officiating were Archbishop Michael Francis of Monrovia and Bishop Boniface Dalieh of Cape Palmas diocese and Fr. Michael Moran, the SMA Regional Superior. He was survived by his mother, Joan Dickrell Seavecki, his brother Peter and his sisters: Anna Marie Dickrell and Mary Catherine Kinney. Paul was the first lay missionary of the Society\u2019s American Province to die in the field.<\/p>\n

Sometime after Paul\u2019s death a tree was planted at Bonike Leprosy Center. The plaque bears the following inscription:
\u2018In Loving Memory of
Paul Joseph Dickrell,
Societe des Missions Africains,
March 1, 1962-August 10, 1999.
Bonike Leprosy Center,
Plesa, Liberia, West Africa.
\u2018I will not forget you \u2026 I have you carved on the palm of my hand\u2019 (Isaiah 49:15).<\/p>\n

He is buried in St. Theresa\u2019s convent cemetery, Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Missions Africaines n\u00e9 le 1er mars 1962 \u00e0 Marschfielddans l\u2019Etat du Wisconsin (USA) membre associ\u00e9 le 19 avril 1998d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 le 10 ao\u00fbt 1999 1992-1994 volontaire dans le Peace…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-necrologe-sma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defunts.smainternational.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}