Paul Carosino, 48, Steam Plant Wizard -- Tinkerer Kept Vintage Engines Pounding

Paul Joseph Carosino showed others how to make the most of their lives.

His fascination with steam power earned him money and pleasure, while curiosity opened him to connections and possibilities, enabling him to solve mechanical puzzles.

When he co-founded the Georgetown Power Plant Museum last year, he successfully blended his vocation of operating engineer, and his avocation of maintaining steam power-systems, including fire engines and autos.

"He taught me to experience the moment," said his companion and partner, Lilly Tellefson. "His view of life was to take each moment and fiddle with it. He reminded me of the otter of the universe - always thinking of inventions, playing with things and examining them."

Mr. Carosino died last Wednesday, Oct. 30, of a heart attack. He was 48.

He also liked telling stories, said his brother, Tony Carosino of Tukwila. Most had to do with growing up on the family farm in Tukwila, where Mr. Carosino learned to run and fix farm machines.

"He was always taking things apart," said his brother. "Once he fitted my bike with a steam line. It was probably the first steam dragster. He turned it on full power when I went by. It flipped me and disintegrated the bike. I was the test-pilot for most of his inventions."

One time Mr. Carosino rigged a friend's stove so that when someone turned on the gas, water squirted them. Another time, he got in trouble for driving a steam-traction machine through downtown Seattle.

Mr. Carosino in 1969 earned a two-year degree in mechanics from Green River Community College, then got his state operating-engineer license.

As a member of the Model T Club, he drove a 1923 vegetable truck in parades. Then he restored the family's 1915 Studebaker and joined the Horseless Carriage Club.

He worked as a maintenance engineer at steam plants, volunteered to repair the Virginia V steamship, and did contract work for Seattle Fire Department on older fire engines, sometimes talking someone through a carburetor re-build over the phone.

He also worked as a mechanic for Renton Fire Department, and fished in Alaska. At one point he maintained and drove locomotives for Snoqualmie Valley Steam Railroad.

Mr. Carosino was the first one people called when cars, furnaces or plumbing broke, Tellefson said.

"He was a hell of an engineer. That guy knew steam inside and out."

Other survivors include his mother, Magda Torghele of Tukwila, and his daughter, Lisa Carosino, San Diego.

Services have been held. Remembrances may go to Georgetown Power Plant Museum, 6511 Ellis Ave. S., Seattle, WA, 98108.