Paul Firmin Goetinck, a biologist and longtime Wellfleet resident, died peacefully at home in hospice care on July 15, 2024. The cause was a rare, incurable blood condition caused by chemotherapy for stomach cancer. He was 91.
Born in Bruges, Belgium on June 17, 1933, Paul was the youngest of four children. When he was four years old, he shared a wooden desk in preschool with Monique Jeanne Vankerckhoven. Their bond was immediate.
He gave her roses, and she gave him marbles, which the family still has. He later taught her to ride a bike and to ice skate. Their connection was clear to their preschool teacher, who told Paul’s mother that one day Monique and Paul would marry. It was many years before that came to pass.
Several years of Paul’s childhood were spent under the shadow of Nazi occupation, and his father died when he was nine. Nevertheless, he was always funny, gentle, patient, decent, and kind.
After high school, Paul and his brother Jean moved to Los Angeles to attend Pierce Junior College. Paul worked as a grocery clerk and eventually enrolled at the University of California, Davis, where he earned a degree in biology in 1956. During those years, he and Monique exchanged hundreds of letters.
Subject to the U.S. draft, Paul was inducted into the Army in 1956. He was posted to Germany and, using his leaves to visit Belgium, he was reunited with Monique. They married on July 24, 1958.
Paul planned to become a chicken farmer, but a professor suggested he go to graduate school in biology. He studied chicken embryology, and his Ph.D. work in developmental genetics settled a controversy about how limbs develop.
Paul won a post-doctoral fellowship at UCLA and then became a professor at the University of Connecticut, where he taught, mentored students, and ran a research lab from 1964 to 1985.
During their years in Connecticut, Paul and Monique discovered the Outer Cape, camping in North Truro and renting in Eastham before building their house in Wellfleet in the early 1990s.
Paul did research at the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation and then at the Cutaneous Biology Research Center at Mass. General Hospital. That posting allowed him more time in Wellfleet, where he retired at 72.
Paul enjoyed woodworking, photography, collecting oysters, a glass of white wine with dinner, and spending time with friends, neighbors, and family. He supported Wellfleet Preservation Hall and enjoyed the Cape Cod Symphony in Hyannis and the Cape Cod Playhouse in Dennis.
He especially relished his morning drives with Monique along Ocean View Drive and evening walks on the Wellfleet pier. His daughter Sue remembers how they would speak to each other in Flemish — a language they had shared since early childhood and that in Wellfleet was theirs alone.
Paul is survived by his wife, Monique Goetinck of Wellfleet; sister-in-law Glenys Goetinck of Tuscon, Ariz.; sister Lucette Lanckneus of Belgium; sister-in-law Huguette and husband Jean Carlier of Belgium; son Michael and fiancée Beth Haney of Norwich, Vt.; daughter Susan Ambrose and husband Gerry of Dallas, Texas; and several grandchildren: Dylan Hooper Goetinck and fiancée Maria of Quechee, Vt.; Thede Ambrose of Chicago; Anna Ambrose of Dallas; and Blake Hooper Goetinck; and nieces and nephews Kathy, Jean, Marco, Nadine, and Philippe, all of Belgium.
He was predeceased by his parents, Firmin and Elise (Caliouw) Goetinck and his brothers Jacques and Jean.
No services are planned. Correspondence may go to 31 Brookside Drive, Norwich, VT 05055.
Donations in Paul’s memory may go to the Mustard Seed Kitchen, Box 833, Wellfleet 02667.
