Connolly, Paul Atwater Born on April 19, 1991, in Minneapolis Minnesota, on his grandfather Bruce Atwater's 60th birthday. Paul died on February 19, 2017 in a car accident in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. Paul attended Blake School from pre-kindergarten until ninth grade. He graduated from the Thacher School in Ojai, California in 2009. During these years, Paul was a loyal and loved son, brother and friend, an avid reader, a Lego master, a PlayStation fan, and using his six feet six inches, a good athlete. He was a fierce soccer goalkeeper and could hit the golf ball farther than most. He loved sailing on Lake Minnetonka. Paul's humor and charm sometimes disarmed the teachers who were not always satisfied with his school work. Paul went to Trinity College in Connecticut and St Thomas University in Saint Paul, and decided that college was not the path for him. He spent a fall in Morocco working in an orphanage for handicapped children and in Oman learning Arabic. Paul was seeking his next chapter. Hampered by mental illness, he never found that next chapter and we will always wish he had. Paul is survived by his mother and step-father, Betsy and Jule Hanna-ford, his sisters Nellie Thornton and her husband Alistair, Mary Connolly and her fiancé Bill Conrad, his father and step-mother Michael and Peggy Connolly, his grandparents Martha and Bruce Atwater, and many, many aunts, uncles and cousins. Services will be held on Friday, February 24 at 3:30 at The Wayzata Community Church, 125 Wayzata Blvd, MN. Memorials preferred to The Thacher School, 5025 Thacher Road, Ojai, CA 93023.