Black History Month 2025 - February 6th - Paul D

This year, as a 60-turning-61 white man, I am going to highlight African Americans that have had some kind of influence in my life. Some are famous, some are friends, and others are just people. #blackhistorymonth

February 6th - Paul D

I started working at a startup software company while finishing my bachelor’s degree. There were ten programmers, one of whom was the CEO. All but one of us were all classmates with each other at Rice, and another was a fellow that some of us met at a programming contest. All 10 of us were white and male and nine of us were between the ages of 20 and 25.

However, the other 20 or so employees were from all walks of life. One of them was an African American fellow named Paul. He was hired to work in the shipping department. He packed boxes, printed labels, coordinated pickups by UPS and Fedex, and did random other jobs around the office. There was always something to do at a startup…

He started hanging around with the programmers because he was close to our age, and we had more in common with him than anybody else. We would go to lunch or dinner and the like.

I bought a beat-up car while I was at that company, and started trying to maintain it myself. I knew it probably needed an oil change, but did not know what to do about or where to go. I brought it up to Paul, and he said he would teach me how to change my own oil. I went to his apartment complex in my car, and he took us to the local auto parts store and got oil and a filter and a plastic container to put the used oil in. He had tools and a drain pan. And, in that Southwest Houston apartment complex, he showed me what to do and how to change the oil. He saved me about $30. I changed my own oil on my cars for a few years more after that.

He invited me to be an usher for his wedding. The service was at a historically Black church in Houston that had no air conditioning. It had handheld fans with pictures of the church on them that looked like they were 20 years old. The maid of honor was flying in from somewhere, so we all waited in the hot building, and all of the wedding party was dying of sweat. We finally got through it and had a good party.

The startup was bought during that time, and I moved to California a few weeks later. I lost touch with Paul, which is a shame. He was a cool guy.