Paul Cromwell · 2015 Honoree

Paul Cromwell and his wife, Marsha, live in a large yellow brick house at the corner of 5th and A Streets Southeast and they know everyone who lives near them. Paul refers to the house itself, a hundred and forty year old structure that was once home and office to a psychiatrist and later was divided into seven rental units, as a “work in progress.” The welcoming attitude that brings 60 or so neighbors there for oyster stew on Christmas Eve and for other occasions throughout the year he attributes to his family. Paul’s father was a professor of electrical engineering, first at New York University and, later, at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and his mother regularly invited grad students from Pakistan and India to share meals with the family. Paul’s sociable nature was reinforced when he lived for several years on a houseboat at the Capital Yacht Club where he and Marsha met. Visiting back and forth among boats and sharing, among other things, a late afternoon glass of wine, was the tradition there.

After graduation from the University of Tennessee, it was an internship with the Department of Agriculture that brought Paul to Washington, D.C. and led to his long and varied career of both government service and volunteer activity. He transferred to the Peace Corps where he became the Deputy Director of the Peace Corps in Niger and then the Director of Training for Africa. He eventually became involved with historic preservation and information technology at the Department of Health and Human Services. Twelve years ago Paul retired from government service and turned his attention to more local matters. He had already put in twenty years with Soccer on the Hill doing everything from coaching kids’ and women’s teams to refereeing. He became active with the Capitol Hill Restoration Society, managing the group’s website and budget and participating in the management of the annual House and Garden Tour. He served as chair or co-chair of the tour for five years and for five years researched the house histories. A lifelong baseball fan, Paul has been involved with a local fantasy baseball league for twenty-five years. Paul is the past president of the National Capitol Club de Pétanque which is an outdoor version of bowling he learned to love in Africa. He and his group play on Monday afternoons in Garfield Park under the auspices of Capitol Hill Village.

Paul raised three children, Kimberly, Lawrence and Cynthia on Capitol Hill and has been rewarded with three grandchildren one of whom, Sanderson Grace Wallace, daughter of Cynthia and her husband Joe, lives just three blocks away.