With thoughts of next season's garden chores and photographs yet to be taken, Paul Marshall Macapia passed at home on Saturday, December 4, in the embrace of his family.

Paul's parents, Jose and Alice, met at the University of Chicago. They moved to the Philippines, where Paul and his older sister were born. The family was interned there by the Japanese during World War II.

Paul's youth was spent in Chicago, and he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Science-Anatomy from UChicago. An obligatory stint in the army introduced him to the northwest, and he and his first wife, Sybil, settled in Seattle. At the time of his second marriage, in 1974, to Mary Magnuson, he moved to Vashon with Mary and the three children, Cate, Peter and Ele. The following year they were joined by daughter Celeste.

Paul's presence was strong on the island. He gave presentations in the schools of his photographic documentation of the Lewis and Clark Trail for the 1976 Bicentennial exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum, and mentored students in photography. For eight years he served on the Vashon School Board. His photographs were a highlight of the Vashon Allied Arts publication"Arts News" for many years. More recently, he documented events for the Vashon Island Fruit Club, of which he was an ardent member.

Paul maintained a dozen fruit trees, which he and Mary planted upon their arrival on Vashon. His large vegetable garden, blueberry patch and acre of landscaping gave him joy (and grief) for many decades, and after retirement received endless loving care. He liked nothing better than sharing the garden, and his vegetables, with friends and family. It gave him special pleasure to help his grandchildren learn to plant, to tend, and to harvest.

Late into the evenings, Paul could be found at rest with a book. With an endlessly curious intellect, Paul researched vexing pruning dilemmas, new ways to manipulate his camera, and delved deeply into Japanese fiction and philosophical texts and novels. Equally enjoyable to Paul was the world of film, especially foreign cinema. He never tired of watching the films of Akira Kurosawa and particularly enjoyed revisiting the complex and difficult movies he watched as a younger man.

Paul's career as a photographer is legendary. He moved from doing medical photography at the University of Washington, to Harborview Hospital, and then to the Mason Clinic and Virginia Mason Medical Center, where he became Director of Photography and Illustration.His work won national and international awards, including a fellowship in London's Royal Microscopical Society. The picture of which he was most proud was a trans-illuminated photograph of a human embryo. The image won first place in the Biological Photographic Association International Competition in 1965, and was used as the BPA symbol the following year.

Love of nature drew Paul to the ocean, the mountains, the forests, as ever, with his camera. In 1972, a solo exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, Photographs of Land and Sea, led to his being hired by the museum, where founder Dr. Richard E. Fuller still walked the halls. He dedicated his acute skills to the arts for the next three decades. His masterful images fill dozens of exhibit catalogs, many of which received national and state awards. His great gift was to sense and inhabit the soul of an object, and through the manipulation of light and optics, capture its essence. "Smoke and mirrors" were a specialty, as well as the occasional clothespin or tinkertoy, as he contrived to coax light, reflection and viewpoint into the perfect image. His photographs of people and places were also sensitive and revealing.

Paul and Mary toured Greece in May in honor of their 35 years of marriage. He was thrilled to walk among the ruins of the Parthenon, Delphi, Olympia, Knossos, Phaestos and Delos; his photographs are witness to the strong connection he made with the ancient civilizations of Greece. The photo at the left shows Paul at work among the ruins of Olympia. Paul celebrated his 75th birthday on November 14. Paul is survived by his wife Mary; his sister Alice Zimring; Cate and Kevin Oyama and their daughters Nora and Lily; Peter Macapia and Marissa Brown and their daughters Amelia, Abril and Coco; Ele Macapia; and Celeste Macapia and Alok Lathi.

A memorial service will be held Sunday, December 20 at 1 p.m. at The Burton Lodge, with potluck luncheon following.________________________________________