Resident Paul Ross hosts a community conversations program at Youville Place. Photo courtesy/Youville Place
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What were your childhood aspirations? What has mattered most to you in your career? What role has your heritage or family background played in your life? What's a little-known fun fact about you?
These are all potential topics of conversation in Conversations with Paul Ross, a monthly, resident-led program in its second year at Youville Place.
"I always wanted to teach," says Paul, in response to the first question. "Even in the first grade, I would pretend that I was a teacher."
Remarkably, Paul Ross's first-grade career aspirations did not require much revision once he came of age. It's difficult to imagine someone better suited for a role in education. His knack for connecting with audiences has taken him around the world, from junior high school classrooms in Concord to high profile speaking engagements at UNESCO and Washington, DC.
Since moving to Youville Place three years ago, Paul has maintained his zeal for connecting with others. This month, his conversation program occurs on Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 3:00 p.m. The program was designed to give residents the chance to forge community on their own terms.
"Part of being in community is opening up to different points of view," says Paul. "I find at first people who join group are shy. I'll start by telling some of my own stories and then they'll jump in. Then they do fine, and I become more a facilitator."
Paul has remained a "townie" at heart. The son of two prominent Lexington business owners, his current residence at Youville Place is just a mile away from the home where he grew up on Follen Hill. As a child, he remembers skating on the Youville pond with his sister, back when the pond was part of the Tower Estate and the concept of assisted living did not yet exist. Paul's father owned a furniture business in Depot Square. Next door, his mother ran an interior design business called Betsy Ross Galleries.
"My mother was recently honored on one of the town banners that they hang up in the street," says Paul. "She was the first woman to own a business in Lexington. That was very unusual in 1929."
Paul seems to have inherited an entrepreneurial spirit from his parents. After years of happily working in public elementary education, he saw an opportunity to transition to adult education in a corporate setting, which ultimately led to him starting his own consulting business in later life.
"It wasn't planned, but while I was in graduate school, I learned that corporations had training departments, so I became more attuned to the corporate environment," says Paul.
As director of human resources for DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), Paul began working on AIDS education just as the epidemic was fanning across the country in the 1980s. "DEC created a new office for me, and for five years, all I did was education outreach," says Paul. "We had family nights, major corporate support, walks for life in every major city. It was the best work of my career. I was able to go out and do my thing knowing that I had this company behind me saying, 'go out and do wonderful things.'"
Paul became so well known for his pioneering AIDS education programs that other corporations began requesting his services. He spoke at UNESCO in Paris and became a member of the National Leadership Coalition on AIDS in Washington, DC. "DEC always gave me permission," he says with gratitude. It was good business and the right thing to do."
As DEC entered a period of decline, Paul reinvented himself once again as an independent consultant. Equipped with an enormous list of clients from his work for DEC, he had no shortage of business as he consulted under the aegis of Paul Ross Associates.
Interested in learning more about Paul or sharing your own story? Contact Susan Snow at 781-861-3535 to learn more about Youville's program offerings.