Sorry i am new to this. The paper wallet was a gift in 2017. I wasn't aware i need a password to access as i was never given one.
The person that gave you the paper wallet encrypted the private key with password/passphrase. Tell the person to give you the password for you to access the coins. Without the password, you may not be able to have access to the WIF private key, especially if the characters are long.
He said he doesn't remember setting a passphrase. I checked and the BTC have not been spent yet. Is it possible to bypass the password somehow?