“It’s sad. It’s terrible to see something like that. He was 89. His whole life changed like that.”
The reaction through much of Cadillac after a longtime resident died Thursday when a car hit him while he was walking home.
Gus Paulos was just steps away from his home Thursday when he was hit by a Marion woman driving a pickup truck.
Cadillac police say when they got there he was dead at the scene.
Paulos had the right of way when he was crossing Pine Street at Mitchell Street.
In tonight’s top story, 9&10’s Caroline Powers and photojournalist Jeremy Erickson share how community members are remembering the man well-known around town.
“He was so close to home though. That’s the tragic thing about it. So close to home.”
The walk down Mitchell Street in downtown Cadillac is something Gus Paulos was far too familiar with.
“He just walked everywhere. Everywhere,” says Sandra Baker, owner of Sandi’s Antiques and Collectibles. “Even though he was about 90 he went to the post office, the museum, down to Family Fare for his groceries and the pharmacy for his drugs.”
But Thursday afternoon, as he was crossing the street to go home, he was hit and killed.
“I just can’t believe he’s gone. It’s total shock and he seemed like a guy that would just be here forever to me,” Baker says.
A quiet man around town, there weren’t any recent photos of Gus. We found his yearbook photo from the 1940’s, but still he was a man who left his mark.
“I thought everybody absolutely knew Gus. I don’t know if they knew his name but they’d say the old guy that walks the street,” says Baker.
Walking several times a month up to the Wexford County Historical Society Museum since 1968, Gus was the man behind putting every letter on the signs in the building.
“This year he actually came in with a little hand-held vacuum that was specially made for vacuuming in between the groves,” says Richard Kraemer. “So you can see how beautifully vacuumed this sign is.”
“He was a good person,” Baker say. “I’m gonna miss him terribly.”
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