A lifetime of laughter

As you look across the wide, open field, there is a bustle of activity. Kids as young as 3 years old work alongside 18-year-olds to set up for the 65-year-long tradition of the Wenatchee Youth Circus, but something’s not quite right. A blanket of sorrow hangs over the performers as they go about their normal routines, knowing that something is missing: the bright face of Guppo the Clown, Paul Pugh, who died on Jan. 31 at the age of 88 years old.

“It’s a pretty heavy hit, because Paul has been a part of so many kids’ lives over the years,”  said former Youth Circus performer and current board member James Wallace. “There’s over 6,000 kids that have gone through just the Wenatchee Youth Circus program. That’s not counting all his years as principal at Orchard or at the old high school, HB Ellison, and all of the adults and people he’s met through all of his connections not only with the community, but with his travels with the circus and his travel company (Three Ring Tours)  with him and his wife, all of those. The bond made is … you can’t measure that. It’s all over.”

Pugh was born on June 26, 1927. He lived in Wenatchee and Cashmere for about 13 years until his mother, Genevieve, remarried and moved him and his step brothers to West Seattle where Pugh graduated high school in 1945. Soon after, Pugh joined the Army of Occupation and went to Korea during World War II where he worked for the Armed Forces Radio at the base’s post office.

After returning home, Pugh used his education benefit from the GI Bill and attended Whitman College where he graduated in 1951. From there, he then went on to teach Social Studies and Language arts at the old HB Ellison Junior High School in Wenatchee. While teaching, Pugh commuted back and forth during the summers to Ellensburg to earn his Master’s Degree.

Pugh wrote his Master’s Thesis on the circus, so it was an obvious choice to create the tumbling team at the junior high, which later moved to the YMCA, the very first sponsor of the circus. The team would perform at basketball games, school assemblies, and community service club meetings; that was the beginning of the Wenatchee Youth Circus.

When HB Ellison closed, Pugh then transferred to the newly built Orchard Junior High School where he worked as vice principal in 1962. Just a few years later, he was promoted to principal and worked in that position until he retired in 1982 with a total of 30 years in education under his belt.

Unable to give up being a part of Wenatchee’s education program, Pugh ran for the Wenatchee School Board just five years after retiring. Without doing any campaigning, he won.

“[Pugh’s] name is so recognized that he ran for the school board and didn’t have to spend anything for advertising. You don’t see that nowadays, people spend lots of money to get elected to positions,” Wallace said. “He just put his name on the ballot and name recognition alone was enough to get him elected to the school board, that’s pretty amazing.”

In 1975, Pugh married Karen Day, and they took their love for traveling the world and turned in into a business: Three Ring Tours.

However, perhaps Pugh’s most impressive legacy, and most touching, was the Wenatchee Youth Circus. According to Wallace, over 6,000 kids have gone through WYC, and it has impacted every single one.

“The circus, it is a very professional thing. It’s something that we try to keep as professional as we can, but it’s also one big family,” said sophomore and four-year Youth Circus performer Eathyn Geren. “You have a group of kids who spend nine months out of the year together, and you don’t have people that are closer to you than those people. What Paul really did for us is he kept it ‘family’ but he could also keep it professional. He could keep the family together in such a professional way, and there’s nobody who could do that better than he could.”

Besides just helping people find their inner circus, Pugh was always trying to help and support the young athletes in every part of their life.

“He always tried to see what was good in people, no matter what their background was, what they did, how much trouble they got into; he always tried to see what was good and how to help them get towards that,” said senior and 18-year Youth Circus performer Mitchell Thacker.

One of Pugh’s mottos was: “We don’t need animals because we have teenagers; that’s your own breed of animal right there,” and although the circus is technically a “very professional thing,” it’s also a very fun activity that kids can spend a very long time doing. In fact, there are some performers, such as Thacker, who were born into the circus and continued doing it up until they were 18.

“It really says something about a program if a kid is willing to stick with it for 18 years, I think,” Wallace said.

The program was so influential to so many people, that when they found out that Pugh had passed away it was devastating to them.

“I’ve only known [Pugh] for three years, but those three years were extremely influential in my life, and I just started crying [when I found out Pugh had died] and I went and talked to my mom,” said senior and three-year Youth Circus performer Abby Phipps. “It was as if a family member had died.”

In honor of everything that Pugh had done for the community, circus alumni and friends of Guppo the clown presented him with a bronze statue that now stands in front of the Wenatchee YMCA. It’s a symbol of joy and a connection that runs deep through so many members of Wenatchee’s community.

“It’s amazing how many business owners and ‘Joe Blows’ off the street were (from) circus, they all share that bond,” Wallace said.

Although Paul Pugh may be gone, he will live on in the hearts and memories of everyone that was able to know him, and he will continue to influence many people’s lives through the Wenatchee Youth Circus and his inspiration.

“The last thing he said to me was, ‘I want you to always remember: Keep doing what you love,’” Phipps said. “He saw the bad things, but all he wanted to do was make them good things.”