Paul Vandeventer was born in Altadena but lived in various spots, as his family followed the aerospace industry. Since 1975, however, the president of Community Partners has stuck to Southern California, and currently resides in Eagle Rock. He answered one of our tougher questions – describe yourself in five words or fewer – faster than anyone we’ve interviewed. See his answer to that question and others below.
Q. What do you wake up to?
A. Coffee.
Q. What is your favorite word?
A. Liminality.
Q. What comforts you?
A. Cuddling with my wife or my kids.
Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?
A. Practical with an inspirational bent.
Q. If you could live in any other time, past, present or future, which would it be and why?
A. The dawn of the Renaissance, because so much was happening intellectually, so much was happening culturally.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go and why?
A. To the far reaches of the solar system, and sightsee along the way.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. If there was a profession for sitting around and sipping wine and talking late into the night about ideas, and I could get a comfortable paycheck for it, or be kept, that’s what I would do.
Q. Whose talent would you like to have?
A. Anyone capable of deep sustained focus over a long period of time.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. Spaghetti. It was kind of a communal dish at my house, and my mother made it really well. It was always a special night.
Q. Which teacher or professor, if any, changed your life?
A. The one I think of most often was my Shakespeare professor in college, Michael Warren, who I see every year when I go to the UC Santa Cruz Shakespeare festival. He was a brilliant thinker, and he gave me a lifelong appreciation for Shakespeare.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead that you would like to have a beer with?
A. My brother. He died when he was 19. I’d like to have a drink with him.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.