Peter Helmuth Paulsen, a developer who revitalized Bellingham’s waterfront and a philanthropist who made unprecedented contributions to local organizations, died at the age of 90 on July 17, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Paulsen, who emigrated from Germany as a young man, was already a master mason bricklayer by the age of 17, and aspired to be a large-scale builder, a dream he quickly realized. He spent much of his professional life in northern California building and investing in commercial and residential projects before retiring in Bellingham in the late 1990s. Or at least he attempted to retire, but as he told the Bellingham Herald in 2022, once he was here he started wondering why there was no hotel on the waterfront where guests could enjoy stunning views of the bay.
Susan McEwen-Thompson, one of Paulsen’s five children, remembers sitting in the lone restaurant on the man-made spit (then known as the Tom Glenn Spit) next to Squalicum Harbor with her husband as her father designed a European-style hotel on a napkin. That napkin doodle would become Hotel Bellwether, a 68-room luxury hotel that marked the beginning of the Port of Bellingham’s ambitious project to modernize the peninsula, now known as Bellwether on the Bay.
“That area was really raunchy and rough and old and undeveloped,” she said. “His vision was transformative and helped the port authority get going to revitalize the whole area.”
McEwen-Thompson said that her father was a driven risk-taker who “made miracles happen” by seeing the potential of underused areas. In 2022 Paulsen wrote an autobiography, “From Brick and Mortar to Prosperity: How I Created Wealth” that chronicles his upbringing and business accomplishments.
When he wasn’t in the board room, Paulsen was known for his dancing. He loved up-tempo music like swing and at his favorite club in Phoenix, women lined up to dance with him while their husbands sat on the sidelines. Last year when Paulsen was 89, he and his wife Diana road-tripped up the West Coast from southern California, visiting kids, grandkids and great-grandkids, and ended out the journey in Vancouver, where Paulsen spontaneously started dancing in the street to the music of a busker.
To mark his love of music and performance, in 2021 Paulsen donated the stage at The Portal Container Village, now the scene of free weekly concerts and community events, like the upcoming Noisy Waters Mural Fest.
To mark his passing, the Port of Bellingham said in a statement: “A big heartfelt thank you to Peter Paulsen for your amazing contributions to our community, your legacy will live on.”
By far the largest contribution the philanthropist made through the Peter and Diana Paulsen Foundation was a $50 million gift (followed by another $10 million bequest) to PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in 2022. The donation will be used to build the Peter Paulsen Pavilion, which is scheduled to break ground in 2026 and will include a new emergency department and childbirth center.
“It is evident that we cannot be present for our communities alone, and we are so grateful for Mr. Paulsen’s lasting commitment to PeaceHealth,” said Mike Dwyer, PeaceHealth executive vice president and chief strategy officer, in an emailed statement. “We honor his courageous compassion and his dedication to the health of our community. Mr. Paulsen’s legacy serves as inspiration to all who had the privilege of knowing him or have benefited from his generosity.”
Bellingham Food Bank, Boys and Girls Club of Whatcom County and Skookum Kids have also benefitted from the Paulsen family’s largesse.
“You always help others who are less fortunate, that’s what we were taught,” McEwen-Thompson said. “In our house it was: lead by example.”
Paulsen is survived by his wife Diana (DeDe) and five children: Veronica, Susan, Lisa, Peter Andreas and Lauren. A Celebration of Life will be held in Phoenix on Saturday, Aug. 24 at 11 a.m. The event will be recorded for viewing. Read his family-submitted obituary here.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.