Rank / Rating: LT.(jg)-Lieutenant (junior grade)
After high school, Paul won a scholarship to attend Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Lehigh, PA. He was a chemistry major. It is apparent that he was very intelligent, a born leader and held deeply religious convictions.
Muhlenberg published a weekly newspaper and Paul was a Features Editor, but this was only one of his numerous talents and activities. His names appears numerous times in each issue announcing his latest projects to aid the war effort, service as air raid warden, leading the prayer service for almost every event and intervening on behalf of the students with the administration. He was part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s escort on campus in 1942. And, Paul was a member of the Mask & Dagger theater club and head of Alpha Psi Omega, a national theater honor society to recognize and encourage excellence in collegiate theater.
In sports, he was a member of the wrestling team for 4 years and in 1943 won his varsity letter.
Paul served as president of the student council and was elected class president for each of his four years. He was elected life president of his 1943 graduating class on the first ballot, an honor of great respect.
He was one of 17 senior students selected for inclusion in "Who's Who in American Universities and Colleges."
Paul received the American Chemical Society award, presented to the senior showing the greatest achievements in chemistry. Also, he placed 1st in the Math Society contest.
He graduated summa cum laude on June 7, 1943 with a BS (Bachelor of Science) in chemistry. He was salutatorian, having ranked second in his class with a grade point average of 93.61.
While still in college, Paul enlisted in the USNR on 13 Nov 1942 in Philadelphia, PA. He was received 30 Nov 1942 at the Office of Naval Officer Procurement in Philadelphia and accepted in the V-7, USNR, Midshipmen's program. He was placed on the "inactive duty" roll until he graduated.
The V-7 program was developed to expand the Navy's officer corps through an intense, accelerated training program. The program's midshipmen (also known as the "90-day wonders," because of their abbreviated course of study) pursued courses in gunnery, navigation, engineering, and seamanship.
After graduation, Paul was received at Midshipmen's School at Columbia University, New York, on 2 Aug 1943. His and his classmates made up the 6th Company of the school. Attesting to his intelligence and leadership abilities, Paul was selected as the class commander.
Paul was commissioned Ensign, D-VG (Deck Officer) on 24 Nov 1943. The photo at the top of the page was taken at Paul's commissioning and appeared in the Columbia yearbook, "Sideboy", Nov 1943. Two additional photos from the year book are shown below.
Following his commissioning, Paul served as an instructor at the NSNR Pre-Midshipmen's School at Asbury Park, NJ. This school provided refresher courses in mathematics, English and physics. The average time for completion was six weeks.
[In July 1944, the program became part of the V-12 program for enlisted men, offered the same refresher courses but were known as Pre-V-12 courses].
Paul married Eleanor Mary Goeringer on April 1, 1944 in the Muhlenberg College Chapel in Allentown, PA. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Goeringer of Wiles-Barre. Rev. Howard Goeringer, of Reading, PA, Eleanor's uncle, officiated the ceremony. Eleanor graduated in 1943 with a BS degree in chemistry from Cedar Crest College. At the time of their marriage, Paul was living in Hawthorne, NJ and Eleanor in Wilkes-Barre. Their wedding announcement stated that Paul was an instructor in the pre-midshipmen's program.
Paul was promoted to Lt.(jg) but the date is unknown. It may have been while he was an instructor at Asbury Park or on board Indianapolis. However, the date Paul went aboard USS Indianapolis CA-35 is not known. His name does not appear on the list of officers on board for the month ending Feb 1945, the last list available to this researcher.
Paul was on board Indianapolis on July 16, 1945 when she left Mare Island, CA to deliver top-secret cargo to Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands. After delivery and a brief stop at Guam, Indianapolis sailed for Leyte, in the central Philippines. En route, she was hit by two torpedoes from Japanese submarine I-58.
There were 13 men standing watch on the bridge when the torpedoes hit. One of them was Paul. He was the junior office of the deck under Lt. John Irwin Orr, Jr. Orr ordered Paul to go to radio room #1, two decks below the bridge, and tell them to send a distress message. When Paul arrived he found the room crowded with radio crew and it was wrecked. Receivers were on fire, filling the room with noxious smoke. All communications were out. Men began evacuating as the ship began to list and fire was raging in the adjoining compartments. Captain McVay reached the bridge and Orr told him he had sent Paul to Radio #1. A few moments later, Orr realized Paul had not returned to the bridge. He was never heard from again. Whether Paul made it off the ship into the water is not known.
Paul's salutatory address to his 1943 college classmates could have been presented to his shipmates as they floated five days in the waters of the Pacific without hope of rescue. He reminded his classmates that "when the power of earthly forces is spent, when scientific advances fail in their functions and when reason no longer results in satisfactory ends, man's only recourse is to entrust himself bodily and spiritually to a force which he can neither see or touch." He described faith as "an invisible anchor, steadying one when nothing is certain about the next hour except its uncertainty...."
Paul's death was a blow to Muhlenberg College and its servicemen. Upon hearing the news, his friend Robert Hale wrote to Gordon Fister:
“If ever anyone deserved more to live and influence the lives of others - it was Paul. The only consolation we have in his loss and other Muhlenberg men is that from their example we may be spurred to greater achievement by their example than we would have. We can be ever thankful for their supreme sacrifice. I can hardly believe that Paul is gone. He was so real and steady - so much to be admired.” (November 11, 1945)
A part of Paul would continue to live. His wife, Eleanor, was pregnant with their first child when Paul died.
A beautiful bronze cenotaph was placed in Laurel Grove Memorial Park cemetery, Totowa, Passaic Co., NJ. Paul's parents are buried in the cemetery, also.
Paul's name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, Philippines. He was awarded the Purple Heart, posthumously.
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ABBOTT, George Stanley 
FRONTINO, Vincent Fred 
AMICK, Homer Irwin