Paga

James Allen Schobel

August 28, 1943 – October 10, 2023

We said goodbye to my Father-in-Law last week, after an extended battle with Parkinson’s Disease. This past year had been difficult for him and we while we will miss him and feel his loss deeply we are also thankful for the memories he left with us and that he is no longer in pain.

He was born in Lorain OH, the second of four siblings. He graduated with a PhD in Economics from Ohio University. Met and married his wife Jane there and after a short time in Kansas and South Dakota became the President of Mayville State University in Mayville, North Dakota at the age of 29.

They raised four kids in Mayville, two girls and two boys. And from the stories I’ve heard the girls were pretty good but the boys gave them a run for their money.

After leaving Mayville he was Vice President at North Dakota State University for one year before moving to North Carolina to become President of Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk.

When Max was learning how to talk he mixed up the “G” and the “P” in Grandpa and it came out Paga. The nickname stuck and Jim has been known in our family as Paga ever since.

Paga was smart and kind and had a great sense of humor. He was a car enthusiast and took great pride in washing and detailing every vehicle he owned (which he passed on to his oldest son, much to my benefit because my van is always immaculate and I have never had to clean it once myself). He also loved baked goods of all kinds – but especially pie – and chocolate milk that “coats the glass”. In his retirement he pursued both of these passions by selling used cars and also working at a co-op bakery.

He had a way of connecting with people and making friends wherever he went. He also had a knack for getting free pie….

One Christmas Eve on our way home from the Guthrie Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol” the conversation turned to pie – as it often did with Paga in the mix – and I mentioned that I had never tried banana creme pie. Paga was beside himself and found this to be entirely unacceptable. He insisted we stop at Marie Callenders to buy a banana cream pie, despite the fact that it was snowing quite hard and we probably should have been more focused on getting off the roads. We pulled into the parking lot and Marie Callender’s was very clearly closed. It was, after all, 5:00 pm on Christmas Eve. But he was determined and was not to be deterred. We watched, him very persistently knocked on the door and peered through the window, as we sat in the van rolling our eyes and the pointlessness of it all. And then we saw the door open and Paga disappear inside….for what seemed like a really long time! Finally, he came marching out, with not one but two giant pies in his arms, one banana creme and one french silk (just in case I didn’t like the banana creme) and a huge grin on his face. And he delighted in telling us they were free! He had become fast friends with the ladies inside and by the time he was done working his magic they were giving him free pies. He cut me slice of the banana creme as soon as we got home and he was right, of course, it was delicious.

Paga and his sister Susie, his favorite pie maker

His charm was not only effective for acquiring baked goods, it also worked for hotel rooms. We were all heading to New York City for a family wedding and he very much wanted us to stay at the Waldorf Astoria because he and Jane had stayed there years ago and loved it. He remembered really liking the bellman and thought it would be great fun for us to all stay there. Yes, we agreed, it would but we had called and they were all booked, it was not an option (plus probably not in our price range). He said not to worry, he would “figure it all out when we got there”. We made reservations at a different hotel because you can’t just “figure it out when you get there” especially at the Waldorf (again we rolled our eyes at the absurdity). Fast forward, we are in New York fresh out of getting stuck in an elevator coming out the subway, on our way to our hotel. Paga insists we stop by the Waldorf so he can see if his bellman friend is working (keep in mind he has not spoken to this person in many years and only met him once). Long story short….his bellman friend was still there and remembered him fondly and we all ended up with very lovely rooms that were the exact same price as the other hotel we had booked and we also got a tour of some of the fancy ballrooms. We learned to never underestimate Paga’s charm.

Even with his impressive career, his success at procuring free food and fancy hotel rooms and raising four successful kids, where Paga really shined was as a Grandpa. He adored his grandkids and was very proud of them.

My nephew was born very premature and spent many months in then NICU. My sister-in-law would often arrive at the NICU to see Paga sitting there rocking Matthew chatting up the nurses. What makes this so extraordinary is that at the time he was living 1,200 miles away in North Carolina. He would just get the urge to want to hold Matthew and jump in the car and drive straight to the hospital.

When the kids were in elementary school he would often just show up to eat lunch with them or pop his head into their classroom to check in and make sure they were doing okay and that the teachers were up to snuff (and he was absolutely delighted to discover that their first grade teacher was a graduate of Mayville State). He would volunteer and show up for any event that he could. As they got older he loved imparting his wisdom on everything from car care to economics, to how to carefully unwrap Christmas gifts so you can reuse the paper next year, to how to carve a turkey, to how to rate colleges based on the quality of their cafeterias. The kids took it all in and now have a wide range of “Pagaisms” to guide them through life.