Paul C. Hagadone II
After spending the early hours climbing the cliffs Paul looks out over the horizon
Overlook from the copper cliffs in the morning, Paul's favorite place and time to think
Born(1983-06-20)20 June 1983
NationalityUS
Alma materNorthwestern Michigan College
Michigan Technological University
Known forCreative maze design
Cross-Country Adventuring
Thermodynamics in brewing
Carbon capture and storage research
mini-Baja car design
AwardsMost with the Least Award, SAE (2010)
Scientific career
FieldsChemical engineering
Brewing

Paul Craig Hagadone II(born June 20, 1983) is a Chemical Engineer known for his insightful whitticism, reasoning skills and creative talents. Well adept at anything from construction, to maze design, to fermentation processes, to molecular construction, he is known by his closer associates as infinitely adaptable, or a "jack-of-all".

Early Years

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Paul was born in Chehalis, Washington to Paul C. Hagadone Sr. and Sue Ann Hagadone. The oldest of three siblings, Nicholas and Nathanael, they managed to find no en to the mischief they could cause. His father was a vagrant worker, wandering from construction, to mechanics, to professional floor care, and his mother did janitorial work when she wasn't "spreading the good news" as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Having parents who were gone consistently allowed him and his brothers the opportunity to disassemble household electronics, mix chemicals in the garage into "potions" to be tested on things around the yard, practice throwing knives from the tops of trees, and any other thing an adventurous youth could come up with. At home in the evenings he would play "pretend" outside with his brother. These activities would range from catching small animals and insects to make a zoo to playing "man hunt" where him and his brothers would try to sneak up on each other in the woods and tie the loser to a tree.

Moving

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His family moved constantly. Paul thus far has not lived in one place for more than 4 years. When he was a child Paul rarely live in one place for more than 6 months. Although his family stayed in the same school district for most of his time in Washington, they bounced from house to house constantly. At the end of the third grade Paul's family moved to Florida to help care for his great grandparents. For the two years that they lived in Florida They lived in two different houses and Paul spent his summer breaks surfing with his cousins in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and his winter breaks with other cousins in South Carolina. After two years in Florida, on a whim, his parents sent him to Michigan to live with relatives the summer after his 5th grade year. When his parents came up to get him at the end of summer they decided it was time for a change again, and moved to Elk Rapids, Michigan. While living in the Elk Rapids School District his family moved 4 more times in the following 3 years. Before the loss of his Family, his parents purchased a home that was supposed to be a place they would stay for a long time to come. Unfortunately none of them had the chance to see that happen.

Education

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Grade School

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Paul attended R.E. Bennett Elementary School in the Chehalis School District until the 3rd grade. during that time he only had one friend, other than his brothers, named Johnny. This was because he was only allowed to associate with other Jehovah's Witnesses children which made him quiet and withdrawn.
At the end of the third grade year his parents decided to move to Florida which made him have to say goodbye to his friend and school and start 4th grade at Gulfside Elementary in Pasco County, Florida. After that he was no longer interested in school which showed in all of his studies besides his reading. He used reading as a means of escape and was reading at a 9th grade level by the end of the fourth grade.
No longer having acres of land to run and play, Paul became overweight and self conscious. Because of this he would intentionally not do his homework so he would be given lunchtime detention. the detention would keep him from having to confront the other students and gave him time to read and write poetry.
At the end of the 5th grade year Paul was still friendless and disinterested in school. It was at this time that relatives living in Michigan came down to visit and returned to Michigan with him. He spent the summer playing with his cousins and growing so by the beginning of the sixth grade year Paul was nearly 6 ft tall and "thin as a rail".

Middle School

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Middle school went by rapidly for Paul. he learned to adapt to people so they wouldn't think of him as weird or different even though he never actual became friends with any of them. He learned to avoid bullies and became avidly interested in drawing mazes during school hours. This got him held back in many of his classes, but he didn't care because his family didn't place much value in education due to their religion.

High School

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Paul only completed the 9th grade of high school. At that point he became interested in another youth in the congregation who was home schooled. He was determined to be home schooled as well in order to spend more time with her. Part way into the first half of the 10th grade he took up a home schooling program and quit public school. He only stuck with the program for about a month before discontinuing school all together.

Soon after meeting his future wife (several girlfriends after his high school sweetheart) he became determined to continue his education. He was working for a company that had no possibility for future advancement and was working for a boss he considered to be a tyrant. Without any study before hand he went to take the General Education Degree test in 2006. He soon received a letter in the mail that included his degree and an award for placing in the top 2% of all GED tests taken that year. "So I'm top turd on a pile of @#$%", Paul said.

College

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While still working full time Paul started attending Northwestern Michigan College. He wasn't sure what field to go into until he took an introduction to engineering class. From this he started to formulate where he saw himself in the future. He decided on chemical engineering due to the high demand for professionals in this field and the high rate of pay those professionals receive. He was interested in chemistry and liked the problem solving techniques that were involved with it.
During his time at NMC he quite his long time job and took a part time position at the local resort so he could focus on school. This allowed him to become the President of the Engineering club, Secretary of Student Government, Student Representative to the Math and Science department, Student chair on the Innovation Grant Committee, leader of the Student Outreach Committee, math lab tutor, and lab assistant for the chemistry and physics departments.

Engineering Club

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NMC's Engineering Club built and raced mini-Baja cars. During his time with the club Paul attended 2 SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) events hosted in South Carolina and Wisconsin. In the South Carolina event he was not yet president, but he was one of the main contributors to the success of the vehicle so he was able to drive for an hour during the big race and was able to drive in the mud bog event. In order to make it to the race the next year he became president so he could direct the team to success. He personal designed the vehicle and then performed the majority of fabrication on the car. With the help of his then wife they organized fundraisers in order to purchase the components for the vehicle. Paul worked night and day on the vehicle. After raising the funding, with a core team of about 6 people, the car was built within 3 weeks from design to ordering parts to fabricating the frame and finishing the construction. At the Wisconsin event his team won the "Most with the Least" award due to their extremely limited budget and truncated construction time line. They placed 6th in the tractor pull and 71st overall. They were the only community college at the event with a total of nearly 200 other Universities present.

Student Government

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Paul primarily joined the Student Government Association (SGA) to promote the engineering club and get funding for building the mini-Baja car. He wasn't satisfied being just a member so he ran for secretary in order to influence the direction SGA went. While in that position he saw the opportunity to improve other peripheral groups so he made his way into being the Student Representative to the Math and Science department, Student chair on the Innovation Grant Committee, and leader of the Student Outreach Committee. In these rolls he organized and lead many fundraising, public awareness, and social events.

Work

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While attending NMC Paul worked as the lab assistant for the chemistry and physics labs. this granted him access to the school after hours which helped with organizing and preparing for student events. These positions got him closer to chemistry than any other student at NMC could get. He got to prepare the labs for classes to perform and was able to play with some of the more "fun" chemicals that students weren't normally allowed to handle. He also worked as a math tutor in the Math Lab. This gave him early morning access to the building so he could go in early, unlock the lab, start a pot of coffee, and plan his days events. Being in these three positions also gave him more time to work closely with faculty and staff which improved his chances of accomplishing his many other goals.

Michigan Tech

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When he finished getting his Associates Degree from NMC Paul headed up to Houghton Michigan to attend Michigan Technological University's Chemical Engineering program. He went there a summer and a semester before his wife was able to go, so he had to find lodgings for a single person. Fortunately, in his close work with Professors at NMC he became friends with the geology professor who owned a house near MTU.

Research

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Within the first week of reaching MTU Paul decided to try joining a research team. As luck would have it, he picked the right day to start inquiring because he ended up interviewing with the head of the Chemical Engineering department. The interview went so well that Paul was hired on the spot and given a payed research position in the department head's own research group. In this position Paul set up and ran experiments with in-situ CO2 sequestration. The Graduate student he worked with allowed him to build the test equipment necessary and develop the direction the experiments went. In this position Paul was able to contribute to a published paper as second author and was given the opportunity to present his research findings at the ASISC (Advanced Sustainable Iron and Steel-Making Center) conference.

co-op

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From the Career Fair Paul got interviews with nearly every company he talked with and from those interviews he was given his choice of companies to work with.

Family

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On June 20, 2005 Paul met the love of his life, Natasha J. Terpstra while playing doubles pool at his favorite bar, the Town Club, where his best friend, Adam, worked. It was his 22nd birthday and they were hitting it off with things in common. They spent the evening making jokes about their friends who were trying to hook up and discussing Jules Verne books.
Within 8 months they knew they were meant to be together and on March 6, 2006 they were married