Paul Richard Middaugh was born February 11, 1920, at Fargo, North Dakota, to Luther Bixby and Pearl (Martin) Middaugh. He died Thursday, January 30, 2003, at his home in Brookings, South Dakota. He graduated from Fargo High School in 1938, and was elected to the Academic National Honor Society. He majored in organic chemistry at the North Dakota Agricultural College and played in the Gold Star Marching Band. He enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps and became the battalion cadet First Sergeant and in 1941 became the cadet Lt. Colonel. In 1942 he graduated from North Dakota Agricultural College, and also received the army rank of Second Lieutenant. Paul was called to active wartime duty at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, in the Armored Force Training Center. He served in the 6th Armored Division, 13th Armored Division, 24th Tank Battalion, and 45th Tank Battalion in France and Germany. In Pattons 3rd Army he participated in two battle campaigns in the Ruhr pocket and Bavaria, and in the occupation of Germany. His specialties included Battalion and Regimental Communications Officer and Unit Gas Officer. He was awarded the Bronze Star for volunteering, as communications officer, in assault boat crossings of the Isar River and the Inn River near Branau, Austria. He was transferred to the 20th Armored Division after the surrender of Germany. He remained in the Army active reserve for seven years. Paul enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in the graduated program in 1946 and earned a master of science degree in bacteriology in 1948. He earned a Ph.D. with a double major in bacteriology and fermentation biochemistry in June 1951. He was elected to the academic honorary research society of Sigma XI, and to the honorary agricultural society Gamma Sigma Delta In 1951 he became the assistant director of the Dugway Proving Grounds at the U.S. Army Biological Laboratories in Utah. In 1952 he was the branch chief of the U.S. Army Pilot Plants Division at Ft. Detrick, Maryland. In 1959 he transferred to the Grain Processing Corporation at Muscatine, Iowa. As a fermentation microbiologist he developed a commercial process to produce a bacterial insecticide, Parasporin. In 1960 he became the director of pilot plants of the Grain Processing Corporation with responsibility for process development for production of commercial volumes of dry and stable enzymes requred for conversion of starches to potable grain alcohol and of vitamins and enzymes. In 1964, Paul became an Associate Professor of Microbiology at South Dakota State University in Brookings. He taught graduate courses in Industrial Fermentation and Taxonomy of Microorganisms. He became a Professor of Microbiology and served until June 1980 when he retired to become a full time international process consultant. He represented the National Research Council in Indonesia, Java, and Sumatra, and Japan, and worked for two years on the development of conversion of cassava starch to fuel alcohol. He continued to consult with commercial fuel alcohol manufacturing plants. Paul was very active for 40 years with the Boy Scouts of America. He started several scout packs and troops, and received the Silver Beaver award. On January 14, 1943, Paul married Frances Elaine Tvete at her home near LaMoure, North Dakota. She died June 14, 2001. Survivors include two sons: Robert P. Middaugh and his wife Lynn A. Lundgren of Modesto, California, and Donald R. Middaugh of Sevierville, Tennessee.