Meet Paul (The much longer version)

Paul Katz grew up in the somewhat sleepy town of Milton, Mass., a suburb south of Boston. He attended Milton Public Schools.

His parents were first-generation Americans. Their parents escaped from Eastern Europe before World War II, leaving behind siblings and relatives who perished in the atrocities of the war.

His grandfather owned and operated a shop in Boston’s South End. After graduating from college and serving in the Korean War, Paul’s father, Leon, took over the business. But by the 1970s it was becoming more challenging to run a business in that part of Boston. Urban renewal and the Boston Redevelopment Authority took the property by eminent domain, not once, but twice within 12 years. Today, nearly 50 years later, the site of the second business still remains undeveloped while the surrounding South End is flourishing.

With his father suffering from the loss of the family business, facing unemployment, and without health insurance, Paul’s older brother became sick with a chronic illness at age 12 which would send him in and out of Boston’s Children’s Hospital for years. This was a challenging time. Paul has never forgotten the kindness and community of neighbors who came together to offer support to him and his sister while his parents tended to his brother. Eventually, his parents were able to overcome these challenges. Through hard work and determination, they were able to send their three children to college and moved from Milton to Newton.

It was these experiences at a young age that made Paul aware of the importance of work, health insurance, healthcare for preexisting conditions, and the hardships that working-class families face. Also, while Milton was a bucolic town, he wasn’t immune to the anti-Semitism in the schools and witnessed racism in his community. His father taught him that challenges can seem insurmountable, and they often are, but family and community is everything – you can’t give up.

Paul was always interested in music and started taking piano lessons at the age of eight. He was fortunate to get to study at the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division beginning in the seventh grade. Some of his fondest memories are walking the halls at the Conservatory, playing the Steinway pianos (dozens of them!), meeting kids from other communities with similar interests, and spending hours in the music library devouring recordings with his friends. He participated in numerous competitions and has fond memories of performing for Boston Pops Conductor, Arthur Fiedler. 

When he was in high school, a group of music students hopped in a parent’s van and traveled to Waltham to go to a Reagle Players (now Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston) performance of “Man of La Mancha.” Paul’s high school music teacher, Dr. Noreen Diamond-Burdett, was the music director. “It was the first musical I ever attended, and it was impressive,” he recalls. “In fact, I still have the souvenir program from the performance!”

After high school, Paul attended college with the dream of becoming a dentist, but a semester of chemistry changed his plans. He majored in economics while staying active in musical studies. 

Upon graduation, Paul started his career at consulting firms in the burgeoning computer industry, with entry-level positions at International Data Corporation and Computerworld Publications. At this time, what he refers to as “his parallel career” as a music director in local community theater was starting to take hold. Dr. Burdett encouraged Paul to join her at the Reagle Players as an accompanist. Paul has been with Reagle ever since – conducting summer seasons and the popular “Remembering the 40’s,” “A Little bit of Ireland,” and “It’s Christmas Time!” He estimates that he’s trained thousands of Elves and Santas-in-Training throughout the years. He has arranged and orchestrated almost all of the production numbers in the Christmas show.

“There are many fabulous organizations and activities in Waltham, but Reagle is unique and has a special place in my heart,” notes Paul. “So much great talent, local and Broadway, has graced that stage, and hundreds of thousands of people have come from far and wide to Waltham to see their shows. So many performers, Waltham students, residents, and local busineses have benefited. It has been an honor to be associated with the organization.”

Torn between pursuing a corporate career in marketing and the possibilities being presented in the music and theatre field (which ranged from working on cruise ships to joining a national tour of Les Miserable as assistant conductor), a turning point came during a conversation with a renown Tony Award-winning Broadway composer. “Go back to Boston,” he said. “The regional theater scene is beginning to blossom. You can work on a dozen important projects rather than just one if you were to stay in New York.” Paul took the advice.

Sure enough, a new theater company was starting in Boston in the very neighborhood where his father’s store once stood. The neighborhood was becoming gentrified with theatres, restaurants, and housing. “It was strange to be standing in that neighborhood again where I would go to work with my dad when I was a kid. My great-grandfather had been the victim of gun violence on Shawmut Avenue, and my father and grandfather lost two businesses on Tremont Street. Yet here I was in the 1990s, sipping lattes, in a neighborhood reborn with restaurants, shopping, entertainment, and million-dollar brownstones.” 

The new theater company began in the basement of the Cyclorama building, and Paul started working on productions as music director and conductor. The company would eventually expand into the new Boston Center for the Arts Complex Calderwood Pavilion, a new theater, retail, and housing complex built on the site of the former National Theater on Tremont street. Today, SpeakEasy Stage Company is a respected, award-winning regional theater company. 

By the mid-1990s, Paul was immersed in his dual careers, working as a manager at a global software company by day and as a music director/conductor on nights and weekends. “I thrived on these 100-hour weeks.” At an audition late one night, Paul looked up to see the “prettiest woman.” Her name was Sharon. A recent Boston College graduate, she was a marketing director for a mortgage company by day and was working as a stage manager and volunteer on the staff at the theater. “She was so kind and beautiful that I was too shy to talk to her. For several years, we’d both see each other walking to and from our cars on the way to the theater and I’d just freeze. But eventually, we worked on the same production together, a musical titled, “Triumph of Love.” The rest, as they say, is history. Married in 2001, Paul and Sharon made Paul’s modest apartment on Eddy Street their home.  

Paul’s mentor, Robert Eagle, artistic director at Reagle Music Theatre and retired head of English and Drama for Waltham Public Schools heard that the couple was house hunting and connected them with a neighbor who was preparing to sell her home. Since 2004, Paul and Sharon have called Cedarwood their home. They welcomed Jacob to the family in 2008. Jacob is now a rising eighth-grader at McDevitt Middle School. He loves to swim and has embraced being a member of the Tiger Sharks swim team at the Waltham Boys and Girls Club. 

Paul’s career in marketing includes work with many leading startups including Upromise, which has helped American families save millions of dollars toward college savings plans; Vistaprint, helping small businesses grow; and PartyLite, one of the Top 100 direct selling organizations which has helped thousands of women break the glass ceiling and establish independent businesses. Currently, Paul is a Sr. Marketing Manager at Dun & Bradstreet, a global data management firm that had a local office in Waltham.

In 2017 Paul met a group of Waltham citizens who, like him, were frustrated with city politics and the obstacles facing the long-overdue project to build a new Waltham High School. “The leaders of this group took it upon themselves to stand up for the community, share the facts, and organize a cause. Early in their work, they were dismissed as ‘just another bunch of moms,’ but really, Waltham had never seen anything like this before. I became friends with some of the smartest, most dedicated residents, devoted to making a better world for our students of today and the future. These men and women were an inspiration to me. Waltham will be a better place because of their dedication and hard work. Community can and did make a difference.”

So, with career, music, a family, and now, a campaign, what does he do in his spare time? He loves to work outdoors and is committed to growing the perfect weed-free lawn (he’s close but not there yet), and whenever possible, run away to the White Mountains. 

Since moving to Waltham Paul has been a staunch observer of local politics. Sharon observes that he would rather watch a city council meeting than a good episode of NCIS. “There were many nights over the past few years that Paul would be so frustrated watching City Council meetings on TV that he’d throw on his coat after 9 p.m. just to be present in the council chambers,” recalls Sharon. 

Paul is grateful for all that Waltham has provided him and his family, and he wants others to feel the same. He and Sharon worked hard to become, and remain, homeowners in the city. He believes that it’s ok to criticize – not everything is nor can be perfect, and we don’t always get our way, but what’s important is to listen, evaluate the facts, and try to make things better. Learn why things are the way they are, explain to others, and try to make a change to the benefit of the community. These are the reasons why Paul Katz is running for Ward 7 City Councilor.