Paul Pintarich: His voice will survive his death

Paul Pintarich, writer and friend, died Wednesday of injuries suffered in an August 8 kitchen fire in his apartment.

Paul, who was 72 when he died, was a big man who lived a big life, as Rick Bella's excellent obituary profile attests.

Now on my to-do list goes compiling several columns and articles Paul wrote for the Hillsdale/Southwest Community News in the mid-1990s when I was founding editor.

They will appear here. I'm also considering an on-line archives site to make Paul's work readily accessible.

Be assured that Paul's voice will survive his death.

Sad news about Paul Pintarich

Many of Paul Pintarich's friends are visiting him at the Emanuel Hospital Burn Center where he is unconscious and is on palliative "comfort care."

When I called the center today to check on his condition, I was told that Paul is "not expected to survive." His family gave me permission to share the sad news.

Paul was severely burned in a kitchen fire in his apartment on Monday, August 8.

The hospital is located 3001 N. Gantenbein in Portland.

As I wrote in an earlier post, Paul is the former, long-time book review editor at The Oregonian, but I got to know him when he was a regular columnist for the monthly newspaper I started here in Hillsdale back in the mid-Nineties.

Paul grew up in Southwest Portland and shared vivid memories of his childhood with the readers of the Southwest Community Connection.

I wrote a Red Electric tribute to Paul and his writing back in April of 2007. You can read it HERE.

Praying for Paul Pintarich

I checked with Legacy Emanuel Hospital's Burn Center this afternoon about the condition of Paul Pintarich, who was severely burned in a kitchen fire in his apartment on Monday, August 8.

Sadly, he is still listed in critical condition. The center's receptionist said that while Paul can be visited he is heavily sedated, is on a ventilator and can't recognize his visitors.

Paul is the former, long-time book review editor at The Oregonian, but I got to know him as a regular columnist for the monthly newspaper I started here in Hillsdale back in the mid-Nineties. Paul grew up in Southwest Portland and shared vivid memories of his childhood with the readers of the Southwest Community Connection.

I wrote a Red Electric tribute to Paul and his writing back in April of 2007. You can read it HERE.

Paul is much on the minds of his many friends. As Quakers say: Friends, hold him in The Light.

Encountering Paul Pintarich

What a treat it was run into Paul Pintarich at the Hillsdale Post Office today. I hadn’t seen Paul in maybe five years even though he lives quite near Hillsdale and frequents the Town Center.

Paul was once the book editor at The Oregonian. After he parted ways with the paper, I invited him to write a regular reminiscence column for the Southwest Community Connection, the monthly newspaper I founded and edited.

A life-long resident of Southwest Portland, Paul, who is 68, has rich memories of growing up here. Memories of jazz clubs along Barbur, drive-in movie theaters, massive snow storms and summers spent swimming in the cool but polluted Willamette River.

They all became subjects for the column, which we dubbed “In My Time.” For effect, Paul managed to repeat the title somewhere in each column’s narrative.

Here’s how he did it in closing out a column about neighborhood eccentrics. After describing a few, he ended with…

“And there were others too. The wild Pilcher clan, who lived behind us, the prolific Petersens, who lived next door, the old man with the bulldog on the corner — and many more.

“In my time, our old neighborhood could hold and hide them all.”

Paul also has written two books since leaving The Oregonian: "The Boys Up North, Dick Erath and the Early Oregon Winemakers” about the rise of Oregon’s wine industry and "History by the Glass, Portland's Past and Present saloons, bars & Taverns."

He’s at work on another book, the story of a Portland-born spy and adventurer. In fact Paul was mailing a chapter off to his publisher when I encountered him at the post office.

Well over 6 feet tall (I’d guess 6' 4”), husky, out-going and deep-voiced, Paul is an engaging presence. Our encounter carried into the parking lot. I mentioned The Red Electric and invited him to send me some writing. He suggested poetry.

I always admired Paul’s prose. Now the thought of sharing his poetry in future entries is more than inviting. We'll see what happens.

I suggested that he might want to start his own blog. He’d have an instant following from the many Portlanders who have enjoyed his work.

He said he’d think about it. After all, he admitted, he's never even read a blog. The word itself was unfamiliar to him.

Anyway, his new book is keeping him busy enough.

“Ever written a book?” he asked.

“No, I’m too much into instant gratification,” I answered.

“Right, newspapers will do that, but books get you into some meaty things. Kind of fun.”

And then he was off, no doubt getting back to more meaty things…and fun.

Here’s an excerpt from an “In My Time” column about Paul’s recollections of Portland movie houses in the Forties and Fifties. For this one, Paul interviewed June Fortune, 82 at the time of the interview, about her memories selling tickets at the old Multnomah Theater.

“Though Fortune can neither recall when the theater opened nor remember when it burned down, the memory flickers in her mind like an old silent movie: slow, pleasant and warmly familiar — just as we both remember Portland being, way back when.”