Paul Albert Hecht was born on March 2, 1964, at Tilden Hospital to Frank and Eleanor Nancy Forge Hecht. He died March 20, 2024, in a tragic accident. He was the third of seven siblings. Life on the Hecht farm was full of hours spent outside working and playing. The siblings were close, especially the boys, who grew up loving hunting, motorcycles, and adventures. The work was walking beans, putting up hay, and wrangling hogs.
Paul always made it fun and was full of shenanigans. When Paul was 10, he was burned in an accident on the farm that left him in the Omaha hospital for several weeks. His return was celebrated by his family and siblings, who missed a playmate. The following year, his sister Kathy was born and completed the family.
Being her older brother, Paul gave Kathy many rides on his dirt bike or motorcycle when she was a toddler.
Paul was the life of the party out with friends and at family gatherings. He made everyone laugh with his famous one-liners and observations. He attended the Sturgis motorcycle rally every year with his close friends and his brother Mark.
Paul graduated from Elkhorn Valley Schools in 1982. It was there that he made lifelong friends who have held a special bond to this day.
After graduation, he attended Chadron State College for two years, then returned to work while contemplating his next move.
He enrolled at the University of Nebraska Lincoln in January 1987 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in agronomy in December 1989. He started a job with the Farmers Home Association (FHA) in Omaha, and from there, he was moved to the Chadron office.
In 1992, he moved back to Tilden and worked as a sales representative for Superior/Fontenelle Seeds.
Later, he joined EBM out of Norfolk and eventually started his own business named TB (Top & Bottom) Manlift. With this business, he traveled the Midwest, inspecting and servicing manlifts on grain elevators. He also fulfilled a dream to start farming part-time. In 2013, he moved to the family farm that has been in his family for over 100 years. His father, Frank, had a lifelong dream of building a log cabin on that farm, and Paul completed that dream in 2013.
On September 26, 1993, Paul married Stephanie Bachman of Glenwood, Iowa, at Our Lady of Mt Carmel Catholic Church in Tilden, and together they raised their son, Tucker. The couple later divorced. As a family, they shared many adventures and travels to Europe, Hawaii, Mexico, and places in the US. Paul loved to attend Tucker’s activities and sporting events. They rode motorcycles together, and Paul would ride to Rapid City to visit Tucker while he attended college there. He was so proud of the man he became.
Paul is survived by his son, Tucker Hecht of Lenexa, Kansas, his mother Nancy Hecht of Battle Creek, and six siblings: Lisa (Paul) Mettler of Chicago, Mark (Mary) Hecht of Tilden, Anne (Jim) Meis of Elgin, Emily (Merle) Borer of Elgin, John (Stacy) Hecht of Lincoln, and Kathleen (Scott) Margheim of Columbus, nieces and nephews, and many cousins. He was preceded in death by his father, Frank Hecht, in 2010 and infant sister, Sarah, in 1972.
