Paul Lotzer

Paul Joseph Lotzer, was born on March 16, 1946 to Vernon and Mary Lotzer in Minneapolis where he resided his early years. Later his parents moved their family to the Twin Cities suburb of Robbinsdale, MN.

He grew up in a loving household where his father was originally a barber and later started his own business that provided products to various stores in town. His mom was a teacher for the first part of her life, until she stayed at home once Paul and his brother Tom were born.

His parents instilled in him the values of hard work, being nice to people, and loving God. They were a devout Catholic family who attended church regularly and had a strong faith. This religious foundation remained with him the rest of his life. He was active in his church as a Eucharistic Minister at Holy Name (Medina, MN), attended Adoration, and regularly prayed the rosary at home or on the road with his well-used finger rosary.

Paul’s parents sacrificed to send their children to Ascension grade school (Minneapolis, MN; graduated 1960) and then Benilde High School (St. Louis Park, MN; graduated 1964). At Benilde he participated in a few plays and prepared for his future. He went on to the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN; graduated 1968) and enjoyed that as well.

He began his career working for IDS in downtown Minneapolis. After a few years, he had the opportunity to temporarily relocate to Two Bunch Palms, CA (near Palm Springs) for his first real estate job. That is where he met his wife, Kathy, while she was visiting with her friends on the weekend. They later married on October 26th, 1974. After getting married at Sacred Heart Church in CA, they drove back to MN with California oranges rolling around the car, as the story goes.

In 1980 Paul became a father with the birth of their son John. Paul was a very loving, caring and generous father who always had time for his son. He spent an endless amount of time teaching him about life and outer space, attending his sporting events, playing baseball in the backyard, teaching him to sail, renovating properties, and sacrificing to provide him a good life. He also had a love of Boston College and their football team, always wearing his BC jacket around town. Over the years he became known as the “travel man” from his love of road trips from the West coast to the East coast, recording many family memories with his large 1980’s over the shoulder video camera. He also was blessed to welcome John’s wife Jamie to our family in 2009 and cherished many family events with her over the years. They enjoyed talking with each other and spending time with the family.

He would light up when talking about his granddaughters, Abbie and Lily Lotzer. Over the years he prepared plays with them, joined in tea parties, played countless games of hide and seek, celebrated birthday parties and the holidays together. One of his favorite activities was walking around the neighborhood with them each Halloween night as the girls trick-or-treated. He once wrote that he knew God exists by the love and happiness shown by his granddaughters. Overall, he genuinely loved being their grandpa or “Bapa”.

Paul enjoyed his lifelong career in Commercial Real Estate. He started out of college working for a development company, then later moved to banking with First Minnesota. Real estate was a natural interest for Paul as it was part of his life, not just a job. He enjoyed the people he worked with as much as the real estate itself. He loved it so much that he later wrote a CRE textbook, taught a few real estate graduate courses at the University of St. Thomas and earned his MBA from St. Thomas in Entrepreneurship and E-Commerce (graduated in 2002). He also wrote a book called “Power Questions for Effective Communication” that he sold on Amazon.com in the late 1990’s.

Paul and Kathy recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year! They complemented each other very well throughout their marriage and cared deeply for one another. In the fall of 2024, they moved to a 55 plus community from the home they loved and built in Plymouth, MN in 1983 (home for 41 years). Although they missed their home and neighbors, they benefited from living in a new and safer environment with no stairs.

Paul experienced a unique stroke in early September 2025 that occurred in the middle of his brain, which impacted his brain stem. That caused too many obstacles to recover from. His family was blessed with having three weeks to say goodbye to him when he could still say a few words, pray with us, and know we were with him. Despite the stroke he still maintained his caring and loving personality, smile and humor. His condition deteriorated further the last week until he departed for Heaven on September 28, 2025.

His love of God, family, friends and the Minnesota Vikings stayed true until the end. In his last week he said he was looking for the light and he found it by going home to the Lord.

Paul was preceded in death by his parents, Vernon and Mary.

He is survived by his wife, Kathryn; son, John (Jamie) Lotzer; grandchildren, Abbie and Lily; brother, Tom Lotzer; nieces Amy Romero and Melissa McCormick; and nephews Todd Lotzer, Scott Lotzer and Greg Lotzer.

Visitation will be on Tuesday, October 7 from 4 to 7 at Gearty Delmore Plymouth Chapel, 15800 37th Ave N. Mass will be Wednesday, October 8 at 11:30 with visitation an hour prior at Holy Name of Jesus, 155 County Rd 24. Medina 55391.