Los Altos History Museum has been deprived of one of its stalwart and influential members with the passing of Paul Kuckein on August 31, 2025.
Paul dedicated hundreds of hours of volunteer work to the Museum over the past several years. In January 2023, he inaugurated an original project, “History of Los Altos Street Names,” which he researched independently before being joined by another volunteer – me – in July 2023. With the help of museum staff, Paul and I displayed our joint findings in an exhibit entitled “What’s in a Name?” on view at the Smith House from January to April 2024.
After the exhibit closed, Paul and I continued to devote a great deal of time and effort to the Street Names project with the goal of jointly writing a book whose completion would coincide with the Museum’s 25th anniversary in 2026. Drawing on numerous local historical records and maps, we compiled and documented data on the historical naming of about two-thirds of the approximately 500 streets of Los Altos. Our investigations have included multiple in-person visits to the Santa Clara County Historical and Genealogical Society and to the County Tax Assessor’s office, as well as to the County of Santa Clara Archives, Mountain View Historical Society, and Palo Alto Historical Society.
As part of Paul’s participation on the Museum’s Collections Committee, he was consistently available to assist staff members in answering specific inquiries from the public about Los Altos history. He was known to be reliable and persistent in ferreting out requested data, and sometimes engaged in lengthy email exchanges until those raising questions had all the information they wanted.
Paul was also an active member of the Museum’s Information Technology Committee. He hoped to one day assist in the creation of an interactive digital map of Los Altos that would allow users to touch a street and immediately access information about its name’s history.
Paul’s absence creates a significant void in the Museum’s “family” of volunteers and staff members. He is much missed by many who had grown accustomed to his regular presence in the Museum’s downstairs offices, where he could frequently be found poring over his laptop, surrounded by stacks of files and papers, or foraging for data in the museum’s bookshelves or archival vault.
Contributed by Gina Atkinson, Collections Committee Member
Paul Kuckein researching Los Altos Street names. Collections department, Los Altos History Museum. 2025
