Wayne Thomas Paulsen, 39, passed away on December 19, 2021, at his home in Sauk Rapids, MN. He was born on April 5, 1982 to Wesley and Bonnie (Kluzak) Paulsen at the hospital in Thief River Falls, MN.
Wayne was raised on the family farm in Greenbush and attended school in Badger. Wayne graduated from Badger High School in May 2000. During his younger years, Wayne helped on the family farm with raising dairy cows, goats and other livestock as well as doing field work. Schooling might not have been Wayne’s forte, but he did have a gift for computers and technology. He was the family IT person and loved to have the latest gadgets and tools. After high school graduation, Wayne entered the workforce. The start of his computer and technological education started with Elite Video in Roseau. He also worked at Central Boiler outside of Greenbush and Intercept Industries Limited outside of Roseau. The bulk of his work experience was at Polaris in Roseau as a material handler, including shipping and receiving, from 2002 to 2014. In 2014, Wayne moved to Sauk Rapids, MN for more employment options as well as being closer to his sister’s family. Wayne worked at various businesses in the St Cloud metro, including DirectTV doing installations, Arctic Cold Storage as a high reach forklift operator, and Nahan Printing as a warehouse receiver and forklift operator. His last and seemingly favorite job was with Ichor Systems doing laser engraving and other duties as part of the Hand Work Assembly team since 2019. Wayne was a dependable and hard worker, often putting in overtime when it was necessary. When Wayne wasn’t working, he spent his free time enjoying online multi-player games, including Rust, Space Engineers, Starbase and Icarus. He also enjoyed Japanese Anime, Sci-fi movies, cartoons, and spending time with his sister, brother-in-law, and nieces. He was often tasked with joining Kayleen and her family for weekend dinners and movie nights. Wayne spent many hours teasing and tormenting his nieces, Jordynn and Ella. He also got to meet his grandniece, Lillian, and enjoyed those family gatherings. While he never had a family of his own, he did live vicariously through his sister’s family. He didn’t complain too loudly about helping out with the kids and pets when needed, but he was always happy to give them back at the end of the day. He really was a big kid at heart himself. The philosophy Wayne lived by was “To thine own self be true.” He lived life on his own terms and wasn’t concerned with what other people thought. He made decisions based on what made him happiest, not necessarily what others thought he should do.
Wayne is survived by: his parents, Wesley and Bonnie (Kluzak) Paulsen; his sister, Kayleen (Kevin) Longworth; nieces, Jordynn and Ella Longworth; grandniece, Lillian Starry; as well as uncles and aunts, and many cousins.
Wayne was preceded in death by his grandparents, Walter and Luella (Conover) Paulsen and Thomas and Laura (Johnson) Kluzak and step-grandfather, Raymond Gregerson
A visitation for Wayne will be held at Helgeson Funeral Home in Roseau from 5:00-7:00pm on December 30th, 2021. A Memorial Service will happen the following day on December 31st, 2021 at 11:00am at Helgeson Funeral Home in Roseau with a visitation an hour prior.
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