Paul was born on 5th April 1951, the first born of twin boys, to Daphne and Kenneth Sheldrick and so began the life of the man we are meeting here today to remember and celebrate.

Paul grew up with his parents and twin brother Kenny at 22 Kings Way, Ipswich.

His cousins Linda and Janice, who were similar in age (Linda just a week younger than the twins), lived just around the corner and they all grew up very much together.

Paul and his brother attended Priory Heath School, where he met and became good friends with Stephen, Ian and Fred.

Paul left school at 15 before taking any exams, to take up a job at a local clothing manufacturer, William Pretty & Son, as a trainee work study engineer (time and motion). His teachers were furious as he was quite bright, but Paul being headstrong knew his own mind. (His father was a trade union rep and had recently attended a seminar on ‘time and motion’. Paul read the information sheets he had been given and was hooked – he knew then that this was the career for him!!!).

This was the start of a career that spanned 50 years (although recently retired, Paul was in the process of setting up his own company ‘Justice at Work’, more of which later).

Always proud of his Italian roots (Paul’s mum was half Italian) he met and became best friends with Tony Dimunno and his wife Maureen. He became Godfather to their children, Steven, Julietta and Lisa, although the first time he babysat for Steven and Julietta, Tony and Maureen came home after midnight to find toddler, Julietta, sat on the living room floor quite happily playing with all her toys – they didn’t ask him to babysit again!

Paul moved to the North East in 1981 and started work at Claremont Garments (manufacturer of clothes, mainly for Marks and Spencer) based in Peterlee. He moved up through the ranks here and in 1990 was promoted to the board of Directors. It was here that he met his wife Sue, they got engaged after a brief courtship and married a year later in September 1990 and their first daughter Rosemary (Rose) was born on 10th August 1991. Their second daughter Elizabeth (Lizzie) arrived three and a half years later on 6th February 1995. Sue’s family mostly lived locally in the North East and Paul soon became a much loved son-in law to Joyce and John and brother-in-law to Sharon and Mark. They all very much valued his advice and support on many matters and tolerated (and also dutifully laughed at) his terrible jokes!

Although Paul left school with no qualifications, he thought education was important and had an insatiable love of learning. He passionately believed in career development, he undertook numerous courses to support his own career and in 1996 enrolled on a Master’s degree in Change Management at Sheffield Hallam University. He was extremely proud of his university education, especially so as he had no prior academic qualifications and his graduation was cause for much celebration. In 2008 he was awarded the Graduateship Award in Management from the City and Guilds of London Institute and much enjoyed the pomp of the graduation ceremony in London.

Family was important to Paul and he returned to Ipswich regularly to visit his mum, his brother and family (Veronica, Valerie and nephews Carl, Daniel, Richard, Matthew and niece Sarah) and of course Tony and Maureen and family. His mum Daphne sadly died in 2001 after a brave fight with cancer, during which time she was looked after by good friend and neighbour Pauline, but Paul kept in touch with his family and friends and still travelled to Ipswich to see them.

Paul and Sue lived most of their married life at Rose Cottage in Wolviston. There they met and made many lifelong friends. Paul enjoyed village life and particularly enjoyed socialising with friends over a pint of Bass in the Wellington Inn, and having a natter and joke with the staff in the Post Office.

Paul’s final job before retirement was at RPMI, a pensions administration company based in Darlington. It was while he was here that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the age of just 58. RPMI were incredibly supportive and enabled Paul to continue to work for another four years until his retirement in 2013.

Paul approached his Parkinson’s in the same way that he approached life – with tenacity, a determination to make the best of things and most of all good humour. He often joked that his next career should be as a cocktail waiter as he would be a dab hand at shaking the drinks! He rarely let his condition defeat him and never complained. He became good friends with fellow ‘Parky’ people Steve and Hazel and also joined the local support group and even did a bit of work and fundraising for Parkinson’s UK itself. His absolute hero in recent times was Muhammed Ali a fellow ‘Parky’ – Paul admired his very famous philosophy of always striving to be the best. Muhammed Ali was once quoted as saying:

“A man who views the world at 50 the same way as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life”

and this certainly mirrored Paul’s view of the importance of personal development and embracing Change. But of course it was Muhammed Ali’s determination not to let the Parkinson’s beat him and the humour that often went with that, that inspired Paul’s own attitude to Parkinson’s.

Throughout his career/life Paul was an excellent leader of people and his unique ‘mentoring’ style of leadership meant that he was able to help everyone he worked with develop and work towards their full potential. Right up until his death he was still helping people in this respect and was busy setting up a new business ‘Justice at Work’ to assist people to work through issues they may have at work and find a clear way forward.

Because of his positive outlook on life, his generosity of spirit, good humour and genuine interest in people, Paul seemed to make friends wherever he went and earned a great deal of respect from all who knew him. He touched so many lives in so many ways that he will be sadly missed by all who knew him. His legacy however will live on, not just in his family, but also in the many people he helped throughout his life.