Obituary of Paul J Deck

Paul J. Deck, 90, of New York, NY, passed away on March 3 after suffering from congestive heart failure. He was predeceased by his sister Teresa and brother Arthur and is survived by several nephews and a niece.

Paul was born in St. Louis, MO, to Arthur and Anna Deck on March 27, 1933. He graduated from De Andreis High School in 1951 and went on to study at St. Louis University’s School of Commerce and Finance, graduating with a B.S. in accounting in 1955. A few months after completing his university studies he was drafted into the United States Army, serving in Germany until September, 1957. When his enlistment ended he returned to St. Louis to work as a financial auditor for Lybrand Ross Brothers and Montgomery.

 In 1958, he joined Opus Dei in St. Louis and the following year he moved to Chicago where he began to work in the administrative offices of the organization. Over the next sixty years he worked in the headquarters of Opus Dei in Chicago, Washington DC, and New York. He filled a variety of positions such as financial administrator, director of formational programs for adults, and operations manager, in which capacity he kept the offices humming.In 1965,  Paul helped to found, and became the first Director of Midtown Center, a supplementary after-school program that continues to serve 4 th through 12 th grade students from low-income families in the city of Chicago. 

Paul trained as a pianist (for a time he considered pursuing this as a profession) and maintained a lifelong interest in classical music, especially the late Romantics, with a predilection for Gustav Mahler. In the evenings he loved to listen to music while following the full orchestral score. He appreciated the arts, and had a refined sense of elegance and good taste. He spent the last fifty-four years of his life in and around New York City, a city he loved and enthusiastically embraced. He spent many a Sunday morning exploring the city on his bicycle; he kept this up until well into his eighties when shoulder arthritis made it impossible.

He was straightforward, orderly, and reliable, a man of deep Catholic faith and well-loved by all those who knew him.

A wake will be held on Sunday, March 10, from  4:00 – 8:30 PM  at Murray Hill Place (139 East 34th St., New York, NY).

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at Murray Hill Place on Monday, March 11 at 9:00 AM. The burial will take place immediately after the Mass at Gate of Heaven Cemetery (10 W. Stevens Ave, Hawthorne, NY 10532).