CIVIC LEADER PAUL EBAUGH DEAD AT 78

If Paul Ebaugh thought a project was good for Cape Girardeau, he would work to see the project a success. Friends said many projects benefited from Ebaugh's attention and quiet confidence.

Ebaugh, 78, died Monday.

In 1990, when many of his peers were enjoying their retirements, Ebaugh took the helm of the new bank, AmeriFirst Bank of Cape Girardeau. Ebaugh, former president of Cape Girardeau Construction Co. and later executive vice president and chairman of the board of directors at First National Bank and Centerre Bank, always welcomed a challenge.

He especially welcomed a challenge that would make Cape Girardeau a better place to live, said friend Richard Swaim.

"He was interested and upfront in all things good for the community," Swaim said. "That was just kind of his personality. He was a great person."

Swaim, as president of First National Bank, hired Ebaugh.

"He was a very, very intelligent and astute businessman," Swaim said. "He was invaluable to us at the bank."

It wasn't long before Ebaugh was named chairman of the board.

"He was very capable and very articulate," Swaim said.

When the idea for the Chateau Girardeau retirement center was developed, Ebaugh developed the financial arrangements and helped promote the project. He served on the center's board and later became a resident.

He served on the Missouri Highway Commission from 1983 to 1989.

He was a prominent spokesman in the successful Proposition A campaign to fund highway and bridge improvements in the state. Missouri voters approved the proposition in 1987.

Ebaugh also lobbied for funding of a new Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau.

As president of Cape Construction Co. from 1955 to 1972, he traveled extensively throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s to secure contracts for pipeline construction. He is also a past president of Pipeline Contractors Association of America.

The company was an arm of the Potashnick Construction Co. During his tenure, Ebaugh hired Larry Dunger, who soon became a friend.

When the pipeline division was sold and Ebaugh asked to relocate, he opted to stay in Cape Girardeau. He started his banking career.

"I think at the heart, Paul was a good Christian," Dunger said. "He believed in helping others, and saw all these activities as a way he could contribute to the growth of Cape Girardeau in a capacity that would be beneficial to all. He had the satisfaction of being involved and staying in touch with the people he had come to know through the years."

Dunger said Ebaugh had the ability to bring together the right people with the right resources to get a job accomplished.

"He was very easy to deal with," Dunger said. "He was not abrasive in any way. He did have a very successful career in working with people and bringing them together to form a consensus. Those types of people are difficult to replace."

Ebaugh was interested in bettering health care in the community. He served on the Southeast Missouri Hospital Board of Trustees from 1976 to 1991, when we took honorary status on the board.

In addition, Ebaugh was a founding member and first president of the Southeast Missouri Hospital Foundation, established in 1977.

He was also a member of the foundation's Million Dollar Club Silver Partner program and the 21st Century Partners program.

In 1996, Ebaugh received the hospital's highest honor, the Outstanding Service Award.

"He was an outstanding individual," said James Wente, administrator at Southeast. "He donated many hours of his personal time to the hospital and the foundation."

Over the years, Ebaugh was involved in many building projects at the hospital.

"He was a very unselfish person," Wente said. "He always put the interests of other people ahead of his own. He was a very sincere individual. This is a great loss not only to the hospital but to the community as well."

In 1997, Ebaugh was honored with the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's Rush H. Limbaugh Award. He was the award's ninth recipient.

In 1985 he was the recipient of the Golden Deeds Award from the Evening Exchange Club.

During the 1970s, Ebaugh served as chairman of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, as United Way board president and as chairman of the United Way fund drive.

He was a former member of the advisory council for Doctors' Park Surgery Center.

He was a former member of the Southeast Missouri University Foundation from 1983 to 1986 and was a founding member of the Copper Dome Society.

He served as a past general chairman for the city's Boy Scout fund drive.

"If is was something good for Cape Girardeau, he was there," Swaim said.

Ford and Sons funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.