A legend can't die unnoticed.

That would be unjust.

So when Col. Paul H Hull died at the age of 91, his death was a cause for a celebration of his life.

Ordean Grant of St. Charles knew the Colonel.

"He sold me lots of 'stuff.' Some I wanted or needed. Some I didn't. (He was) a fine man who deserved a fine tribute." Grant said.

Mr. Hull died June 20 on a fishing trip to Canada at the age of 91.

Since 1944, he was an auctioneer. His last auction -- with his son, Duane -- was done this spring, marking 58 years in the profession.

One month after his death, stories are continuing to multiply about the local legend, who, they say, "could sell snow to an Eskimo."

One of Mower County's fabled agriculturists, Harlan Boe is another who remembers Colonel Hull with affection.

"I remember when he got started in the auctioneering business," said Boe. "He and his partner, Leonard Wendorf, came over to Taopi to see about doing the auction of my father, Simon E. Boe, who was selling out. He has a dairy cow farm south of Taopi and listened to Mr. Hull and Mr. Wendorf give their pitch and then gave the sale to jack Reese."

"It was nothing personal. Just a business decision, but through the years I got to know Paul Hull better and he was a real personality. An auctioneer has to have sincerity, honesty and the ability to make an auction fun and the Colonel had all those things," said Boe.

Boe, himself an auctioneer, ran into Hull frequently over the years, but it wasn't until 1988 that the pair became rivals of a sort.

"That was the year I decided to hold a corn-husking contest," Boe said. "I guess I just didn't have enough to do in my spare time."

"We had 22 contestants that year in two different divisions and we made up the contest's rules as we went along. In fact, a man drove onto the farm yard and saw me and honked his car horn in the middle of the contest and everybody stopped. It was that kind of an affair," chuckled Boe.

The "star" of the corn husking contest held in October 1988 on Boe's farm southwest of LeRoy was none other than Colonel Hull.

Although 77 years old at the time, Hull used a palm husking hook to pull away the husk from the ear of corn..

At the time, Hull was the reigning state husking champion of Arizona where he and his wife, Helen, wintered.

Boe, the contest organizer, finished fourth in the competition that year.

Guest husker Colonel Hull finished

third.

"It was a lot of fun and Paul Hull made it so," said Boe. "He was a special man. Everybody knew him and trusted him. All you needed was his handshake and you knew you would be getting a first-class farm auction done in an upstanding way."

A man who knew the Colonel even better was Bob Radloff, himself a long-time auctioneer.

"Paul Hull was a very unique individual in everything he did," Radloff said . "He would walk into a room anytime anywhere and sing the 'Auctioneer's Song' at the drop of a hat."

When the Colonel was a guest on Mike Cotter's popular KAUS AM radio show, he told how he "invented" pole-vaulting as a youngster from make-shift materials around his house.

According to Radloff, the Colonel was a pilot who rescued dairy farmers stranded by a winter blizzard with no way of getting their milk to the nearest creamery. "He always said those milk runs were the longest route any milk hauler ever had," he said.

But Radloff tells one story that is a classic of auctioneering history. "And," he said, "It's all true. Paul swore it was himself."

As the story goes, the Colonel, his long-time auctioneering friend, Lawrence Wendorf and Howie Jensen, then a rookie in the auctioneering business, had boxed themselves in. "They were working an auction at Hyaward and it dragged on and on and there was a long delay that was threatening another house sale they had in Albert Lea," recalled Radloff.

"Paul decided he and a clerk would drive over to Albert Lea to do the house auction and when they got there, there was a man standing on the porch and he said 'Where have you been? It's two o'clock and it's time for the sale to begin. I want to buy this house.'"

"Now, the owner had told Paul he wanted at lest $20,000 for the house," continued Radloff. "But, there was only one person there, the man standing in the porch, and, like they say in auctioneering, 'It only takes one bidder, but if this guy doesn't bid $20,000, Paul couldn't get what the owner wanted."

"Paul had to think quick and he did. He started the bidding and hollered down into the basement for a bid and came back out saying he had a bid of $15,000 and would the man like to raise it?"

"He went back and forth between the man on the porch and the basement until

he got the price up to $20,000 and sold the house to the man on the porch."

"Of course, there never was anybody in the basement," Radloff said.

"Then, he told the clerk to get the man's check and get rid of him so they could make

a getaway before he found out what happened," Radloff chuckled.

True or not, the story is the stuff of legends and the legend of Col. Paul Hull continues to grow after his death.

Lee Bonorden can be contacted at 434-2232 or by e-mail at :mailto:lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com