Born on Dec. 19, 1981, to proud parents Lindsay and Tony, Paul Wawryko was the middle child, sharing a special bond with his two sisters, Ashley and Heather.
Ashley, the eldest of the three, recalls a typical childhood growing up in St. James, with her parents running the three of them to their various sporting events, while summers were spent at the family cabin in Riding Mountain National Park. As they entered adulthood, the bond between them only strengthened, with Paul often providing a soft landing spot for his sisters whenever they needed advice.
“He was my rock,” Ashley remembers fondly. “He didn’t always have the answer you wanted, but he always had a really good perspective. I try to think about that a lot now when I’m making decisions in my life — what would Paul do?”
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Paul Wawryko was most himself while in nature and quietly supported the International Conservation Fund of Canada.
Dr. Paul Wawryko died of an aortic dissection on Dec. 8, 2023. He was 41 years old.
Wawryko possessed a brilliant mind, with those closest to him saying he was the perfect blend of book and street smarts.
As a child, Wawryko would study math in his free time and read encyclopedias to enhance his vocabulary, eventually earning a four-year scholarship in Grade 8 to St. John’s-Ravenscourt. As a senior at SJR, he swept every single academic award.
During his early years of high school, he spent the summers at the lake reading medical journals, on occasion reaching out to the author. It wasn’t unusual to get a reply in the mail addressed to Dr. Wawryko, despite his being barely a teenager at the time.
Wawryko would join the medical profession years later, studying at the University of Manitoba, where he became a pathologist specializing in pulmonary pathology. He started at the Health Sciences Centre and then moved to St. Boniface General Hospital.
He made the rare move of taking a one-year fellowship at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Arizona, despite having practised medicine for 10 years, becoming the clinic’s first-ever pulmonary pathology fellow. He was also the recipient of a teaching award from the U of M.
“Academically, he was one of the strongest in every setting that he was ever in,” says friend and fellow doctor Chris Lindquist. “But he never had any ego about it.”
Wawryko was strong in his convictions, sometimes stubbornly so, which could lead to spirited debates with friends and colleagues that would last anywhere from hours to days and even weeks. He had a great sense of humour and a contagious laugh, holding his hand over his mouth whenever he said something offside.
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Runner, cyclist, hiker, and swimmer, Paul Wawryko also played hockey and soccer.
Lindquist, who is a few years younger, attended SJR at the same time as Wawryko but the two wouldn’t become close friends until several years later after Lindquist joined the radiology team at St. B.; the two of them would walk to The Forks for lunch every day.
Lindquist chuckles when thinking how off the mark he was in his original high school assessment of Wawryko as a quiet and unassuming presence. The man he would come to know was incredibly competitive. He wasn’t a perfectionist but knew his potential and never wanted to fall short of it, expecting no less than a 100 per cent effort from himself or anyone else.
Wawryko played hockey and soccer, and if he didn’t think you were pulling your weight on the ice or pitch, he wouldn’t be afraid to let you know about it on the ride home. He was never more of a straight shooter than when knocking a friend down a peg or two after a loss.
Wawryko also sought out more adventurous options such as marathon running, triathlons, hiking and back-country camping. He competed in the Chicago Marathon three times and the Boston Marathon twice, as well as the Ironman 70.3 in Chattanooga.
Wawryko studied every aspect of marathon running, from managing his macro nutrients to researching the latest gear and technology. He finished every race under three hours, a standard only a small percentage of seasoned marathoners achieve.
Paul had a wide range of interests. He was as comfortable discussing the works of Noam Chomsky as he was the local sports scene or the latest album from Taylor Swift, just one of many musical artists he enjoyed unapologetically.
But it was his actions that resonated the most with the people close to him. Wawryko was a man of his word; if he said he was going to do something, he did it. Often, he didn’t need to be asked.
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Wawryko competed in three Chicago Marathons (including 2023, pictured) and two Boston Marathons, as well as the Ironman 70.3 in Chattanooga.
His sister Ashley once called him in a panic after her daughter broke her elbow. Wawryko recommended they visit the children’s hospital and endure the long wait for care, only for them to show up to see him standing at the front door.
Paul adored his nieces and nephews and would proudly brag whenever they reached a life milestone or excelled at sports. He regretted not having the chance to start his own family but took solace in knowing he had more time to give to Hudson and Payton, Luxton and Kate.
“He’s just that person who shows up,” Ashley said. “He was that for a lot of people, not just our family.”
Patricia Armstrong was friends with Wawryko for 25 years, beginning when he started tutoring her in Grade 9 physics. She watched as Paul redefined himself over the years, evolving from reserved student to a social butterfly.
Armstrong has thought a lot in recent months about why the two remained such close friends — Wawryko had a permanent spot at her family’s dinner table — even after she left the province for university and then settled in Toronto.
“The way that he was able to connect with people and make friends so easily is something I’ve always admired,” Armstrong said. “When everyone stands up at your memorial and says, ‘He was my best friend, he was my best friend,’ it’s because everyone truly felt that. I don’t know how he made time for it all, but he managed to somehow.”
Wawryko seemed to learn his greatest lessons in life through heartbreak. When he got divorced in 2019, he vowed to prioritize the relationships in his life, becoming more vocal with his feelings and showing more support to those he cared for. When he bought his new house, he opted not to have a TV so he wouldn’t be distracted.
He and longtime friend Jay Kilgour brought a sense of peace to each other’s lives, their bond formed over beers in Kilgour’s basement, as well as their mutual love for food. Every time they discovered a new restaurant, they would order one of everything on the menu.
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A devoted conservationist, Paul Wawryko also loved travelling and visited more than 20 countries.
What stood out most to Kilgour was Wawryko’s generosity. Whenever he bought a ticket to an event or concert, he was always sure to grab an extra to surprise someone with later. When Kilgour’s restaurant was struggling to stay open during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wawryko purchased meals almost daily, something Kilgour said he did for several of his other favourite spots.
Wawryko never hesitated to grab the bill or surprise someone with a meaningful gift. While he craved a good time — Kilgour smiles when he says his friend absolutely loved getting VIP treatment — he was happiest knowing others were enjoying themselves.
“I’ve never really thought about why he did all these things — that was just Paul,” Kilgour said. “It’s so special that he was so many things to so many people.”
Wawryko was most himself while in nature. He constantly preached to others about topics such as deforestation and the other effects of climate change, and would get visibly annoyed if he saw someone litter or throw something recyclable in the trash can. Wawryko quietly and generously donated to several causes that were close to his heart, including the International Conservation Fund of Canada.
When the ICFC was contacted about partnering in the upcoming Paul Wawryko Memorial 5km Run on Sept. 21 at Assiniboine Park, it sent its condolences and revealed a long-kept secret that Wawryko had been an incredibly gracious donor to the organization for years.
Perhaps his anger at the state of the Earth was born out of the joy he got from seeing some of its most beautiful and isolated environments; he loved travelling and visited more than 20 countries.
Raif Richardson was a close friend of Paul’s and one of a group of eight that would go on regular hiking and canoe trips to some of the most secluded places in the world. They hiked in East Greenland and paddled the Snake River in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S., as well as the Broken Skull River and Natla River near the Northwest Territories.
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A fundraising run on Sept. 21 is being held to recall the memory of Paul Wawryko.
On one trip, they were so enthralled with the beauty of the sunset they were watching that when Richardson said he wished he could see it again, Wawryko stood up immediately and took off, running half a kilometre, drink still in hand, up a ridge so he could take in its beauty one more time.
“It was 100 per cent when he was with you, and he made you feel 100 per cent all the time,” Richardson says. “I don’t know where he learned it — I don’t know if it was nature or nurture or if it was just something that came out of him — but he was unique.
“There’s been a big push since his death to say yes, to try and pick up some of the things that he did. And it’s really hard, because what he was doing was so amazing and so much more than what everyone else is trained naturally to do.”
jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca
Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer
Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.
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