Paul D. Hernandez

Paul D. Hernandez was born at the Los Angeles Memorial Hospital on January 19, 1937, to Jesse Hernandez and Magdalena Delgado. He was raised in Wilmington CA, by his Mother Magdalena, and stepfather, John Barraza Sr. with his 3 brothers John, Tony, and Daniel. He graduated from Phineas Banning High School in the Summer of 1955 and enlisted in the United States Navy and became a Machinist’s Mate. He worked for McDonnel-Douglas and North American during the Race to the Moon era of the 1960s and was part of the Apollo projects while at North American. He worked for 22 years at Shell Oil Company as a machinist and retired in 1992 as Head of the Machine shop at their Dominguez Plant. He spent his 1st 2 years of retirement caring for his younger brother Daniel who was diagnosed with Colon cancer and passed in 1994.

He was married for 62 ½ years to Gloria Rodriguez and is
• Father to Michael, Stacy, and Paul (De Anna)
• Grandfather to Candis, Stephanie, Valerie, Celeste, Courteney, Raul, Heather, Taylor, Jonathan, Lauren
• great-grandfather to Logan, Dylan, Madison, Jayden, Selah, Ella, Landon, Lucas, Sophia

He was a Past Grand Knight for Knights of Columbus, St. Patrick’s Council, Council #3051, a long-time parishioner at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Wilmington, CA where he served as Usher, Eucharistic Minister to the Sick, and RCIA sponsor for over 20 years.

He loved woodworking, spending time at his cabin in Big Bear, playing harmonica and learning about his Native American roots.