Epic grandfather, faithful Christian and longtime variety store owner Paul Neil
Nordling died Jan. 18, 2026 of age-related causes. He was 96.

Paul was born Aug. 7, 1929 to Gill and Bernice (Olsen) Nordling in Twin Falls, Id.
He was the second of their four children. Paul attended grade school in Eugene.
His happy boyhood there was recounted to his daughters in "Little Paul" bedtime
stories and later as "Little Gigaw" stories he recorded on cassette tapes for each of
his eight grandchildren.

He spun ordinary experiences into entertaining yarns, such as his paper route
challenge of finding just the right trajectory to sail a rolled-up Register-Guard
through the open transom window above a guest room door at the Smeed Hotel.
One story described how Little Paul, thrifty from a young age, collected coins
others had dropped on downtown streets by inserting a wad of chewed gum on a
stick through sewer grates. In another, he recounted tying a string around his
sister's big toe; running the string out her bedroom window and into his, then tying
it on his big toe. Whoever woke up first was to jerk the string so they wouldn't sleep
through the opening of the Lane County Fair.

Paul's family moved to a filbert farm on Hayden Bridge Road in Springfield,
where he attended high school. He played football, basketball and baseball. He
met his future wife, Eleanor Nordling, when she loaned him paper in typing class.
Paul followed his father and older sister to Oregon State, where he majored in
business. He married Eleanor on Sept. 3, 1950, after enlisting in the US Coast
Guard during the Korean War.

He was assigned to a rescue boat crew at the Newport, OR. Coast Guard Station.
During a Journey of Heroes veterans' trip to Washington, DC. 62 years later, his
daughters learned he'd survived, untethered, when his self-righting boat rolled
completely over in a storm. (He improvised by clamping his arms and legs around
the boat's large, wooden tow cable spool.)

Paul and Eleanor lived in Depoe Bay, where he worked as a skipper on the
Kingfisher, when their first child, Karen, was born in 1953. When he left the Coast
Guard, they moved to Corvallis where he finished his degree.
The family then moved to Junction City, where they welcomed daughters Kristy
(1956), Kelly (1959) and Kay (1962.)

With Paul's parents, they purchased the former Ditto's Five and Dime store in
downtown Junction City and turned it into a Ben Franklin variety store. They
operated the small business for nearly 40 years. Everyone in the family worked
there at times —especially when counting every item in the store for year-end
inventories.

The Nordlings spent 20 years living along Prairie Road in a close-knit
neighborhood where they formed lifelong friendships. Paul would come home
from work and immediately go outside to play work-up baseball and "Annie, Annie
Over!" with his daughters and other nearby kids.

Paul also helped launch Junction City's annual Scandinavian Festival. He was
among its original Vikings and at one point ran through downtown in drag,
playing a damsel in distress running from his friends in Viking garb.
His mother was a Dane and his father a Swede, so the whole family took part in
Festival events, wearing Scandinavian folk costumes to sell popular Danish
aebleskiver pans from their street booth. Paul ate a traditional Swedish meal—
potato-meat sausage, broth and rye bread — every Christmas Eve of his, including
his last one in 2025. As a longtime member of the Lion's Club, Paul spent every
Festival Sunday cooking hundreds of barbecued chickens sold to fund Lion's
charities such as providing eyeglasses to the poor.

Paul was a kind boss, working nearly every Saturday so his employees wouldn't
have to. That made for short weekends, so summer vacations consisted mainly of
one-night camping trips to Honeyman State Park. Each Spring Vacation, he
pulled the family's travel trailer to Death Valley for a sun-break of golf, hiking and
swimming. He loved golf, and was a charter member at Shadow Hills Country
Club and Diamond Woods Golf Course.

Paul was a committed Christian, leading youth groups and teaching Sunday
School classes at Faith Lutheran Church. Later, he was an elder and volunteer
groundskeeper at First Christian Church, where he and Eleanor led a "Funtimers'
Group" for senior outings. He was a longtime elementary school reading
buddy and delivered Meals on Wheels to other seniors. He once joined a fellow
church member in carrying a cross along local roads to more closely identify with
Jesus.

He truly came into his own after becoming a grandfather. All his grandchildren
called him "Gigaw," his oldest granddaughter's attempt at "grandpa." He didn't
just read them books and attend their school events, but loved to get down on the
floor and play with them. One son-in-law nicknamed him "The Human Toy."
He and Eleanor would routinely drive 100 miles to catch a glimpse of a
grandchild's head in a school concert or shiver in the rain at a soccer match. He
once flew to Arizona to play a role his granddaughter had written for him in her
birthday party play.

In nearly four decades of summer family reunions at Sunriver, he pulled his
grandchildren in bike trailers, participated in water-gun fights, and initiated them
into the Court of King Bo-Bo, removing their blindfolds to reveal that the "royal
ring" they had just kissed was on his hairy toe.

He and Eleanor traveled all over North America, often with former Prairie Road
neighbors. They visited London and Israel and cruised through the Panama
Canal.

In 2014, they left their beloved Junction City to move into the Country Meadows
Independent Living community in Woodburn, where their daughter Kristy lived.
There they enjoyed bus excursions, chair Yoga and acting in the Country Players
drama troupe. The couple quickly found a new church, Immanuel Lutheran, and
loved how the little church served hot meals to hundreds of unhoused and poor
area residents.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a very difficult period for Paul and Eleanor.
Months of no visitors were very hard, especially when they had to have a virtual
70th Anniversary celebration.

Eleanor died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage in 2022. Shortly thereafter, Paul fell
and badly broke his dominant arm. He declined surgery to repair it because he had
already survived a major heart attack. He moved into assisted living at Country
Meadows and used a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. He also suffered from
dementia that robbed him of recent memories. But he remained a sweet, positive
member of the community there.

He went on hospice three times, "graduating" after improving during his first two
stints. He went on with Tenderly Hospice a final time in late 2025, after becoming
more withdrawn, losing his appetite and spending most of his time sleeping. He
continued to decline and died peacefully on Jan. 18, after many family members and
caregivers came to say goodbye.

A Junction City-area memorial service will be scheduled for this summer.

Paul is survived by sisters Ada Marie (Harold) Haake and Joy Troutman;
daughters Karen (Joel) McCowan, Kristy (Jeff) Leighty, Kelly Peden, Kay (Mark)
Passmore; 8 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death
by his parents, his sister Gayle Moore, great-grandchild Bethany Peden and son-inlaw
Jeff Peden.

His family suggests financial and/or blood donations in his memory at Bloodworks
Northwest, where Paul donated more than 20 gallons of blood in a years-long
friendly competition with his late, longtime friend Carl Nielsen.

Go to www.bloodworksnw.org to schedule an appointment or click on financial
donations.