
{"id":458,"date":"2007-06-21T07:12:51","date_gmt":"2007-06-21T15:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/06\/21\/max-paul-a-friend-to-carrboro-passes-away\/"},"modified":"2007-06-21T07:12:51","modified_gmt":"2007-06-21T15:12:51","slug":"max-paul-a-friend-to-carrboro-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/06\/21\/max-paul-a-friend-to-carrboro-passes-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Paul: A friend to Carrboro passes away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/webmax0607.jpg\" height=\"285\" width=\"188\" \/><br \/>\nPhoto Courtesy of George Hoag<strong><\/p>\n<p>By Taylor Sisk<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>He was a familiar sight to most all Weaver Street Market regulars and a comforting presence to so many. Max Paul had a warm greeting for all his friends. He would sit with the closest among them to discuss politics, in a reasoned voice, and the particulars of the day, but had little interest in discussing his own life \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a life that by the few accounts available was rich and apparently quite colorful. Max Paul, 87, died on June 13 at the Chapel Hill Rehabilitation Center.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We all cared very deeply about Max,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Weaver Street operations manager James Watts, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but we knew very little about his life.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Max was born to Austrian immigrant parents on the Lower East Side of New York on January 10, 1920. After graduating from high school, he worked odd jobs. With the outbreak of World War II, and with his older brothers having been drafted, he remained at home to care for his ailing mother. Upon her death, he entered the Army and was discharged in 1943 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c most probably a medical discharge.<\/p>\n<p>After the war, he spent several years on a kibbutz in Palestine and marched in Israel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Independence Day parade. Back in the States (though precisely when is unclear), he enrolled at Black Mountain College \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an experimental school located in western North Carolina, influenced by the Bauhaus movement and home for a time to such scholars and artists as Buckminster Fuller, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham and John Cage.<\/p>\n<p>In the early \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s, he enlisted in the Merchant Marine, serving in the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n<p>Max subsequently came to UNC, where he was active in theater and in the labor and social-justice movements.<\/p>\n<p>He would then spend some years, in the words of his good friend Chapel Hill resident George Hoag, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bouncing around.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He was a maitre d\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in Miami, and eventually went into sales \u00e2\u20ac\u201c though, said Hoag, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153nobody knows what he sold.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Max retired to Chapel Hill, and\u00c2\u00a0 Hoag met him here in the early \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc90s: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably when he came into the area. He was very vigorous then.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He was a stream of consciousness talker,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hoag said. He tells of driving around town as Max would describe what the things he saw reminded him of from his many travels.<br \/>\nMax\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home the last years of his life was the Covenant House in Carrboro \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but his primary residence was Weaver Street Market.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He touched so many people,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Diane Ivers Raulli, who regularly lunched with Max at Weaver Street. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He was always there. My eyes are still seeing him, with his bagels, his jam and his tea \u00e2\u20ac\u201c so nice and welcoming and warm.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He was the first face I got to know when I moved to Carrboro three years ago,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Raulli said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and I would mooch in on his table.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She describes sitting with Max and discussing this and that, perhaps politics \u00e2\u20ac\u201c she becoming emotional when talking about the government; Max, calmer, no more enamored of Bush, but a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153voice of reason.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Many others in Carrboro also came to know Max. Hoag said, for example, that he became friends with the tellers at the bank:<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153At Christmas time, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d give them a $2 tip. Of course, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to put it back into his account because they weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allowed to take it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Though known for being decidedly frugal, Hoag said, Max took care of those he cared about. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And he was apologetic if he had to ask you for a favor.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>As his body was failing, Max continued to exercise his mind. Hoag said that the Carrboro Cybrary \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was just a gold mine for him.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He was often found there, checking out books and reading The New York Times.<\/p>\n<p>Max\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s progressive medical problems baffled the doctors, said Hoag, adding that he most probably died of a series of small strokes. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He was weak on one side, and kept falling at home.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He was prepared to die,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hoag said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He spent the last two years getting [things in order]. Hoag said that Max had reacquainted himself with his roots toward the end, and that he had wanted a traditional funeral.<\/p>\n<p>Services were held on June 14 and were led by Rabbi Morton Green at the Chapel Hill Kehillah Cemetery at Markham Memorial Gardens.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He is, to me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Raulli, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a very precious memory.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Plans for a commemoration of Max Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life are being discussed. There is also talk of planting a tree at Weaver Street Market in his honor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo Courtesy of George Hoag By Taylor Sisk Staff Writer He was a familiar sight to most all Weaver Street Market regulars and a comforting presence to so many. Max Paul had a warm greeting for all his friends. He would sit with the closest among them to discuss politics, in a reasoned voice, and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}