PAUL FOWLER – An appreciation by Chris Jaeger

 

Paul had been living with cancer for some time, but sadly died on Tuesday September 9th. He had many friends and a significant number of them have contacted me to express their sorrow and to say how much they both liked and admired him. Very much my sentiments too.

Paul was a man of many talents and had two very different careers. He started his working life as a local newspaper reporter with the Tamworth Herald, before joining Motor Cycle News as a sports reporter in the late 1970s, covering moto cross racing all over the world. After editing the launch editions of 'Dirt Bike Rider' magazine for MCN's parent company in 1982-3 Paul returned to MCN to cover Grand Prix road racing, the paper's top sports reporting position. He was again on his worldwide travels in this role, which he held until 1988 when he joined former MCN colleague Neil Webster to form a motorsports public relations company, 'Action Media International'.

Working with teams including Pepsi, Suzuki and JPS Norton, Paul was the man on the ground at races, charged with maximising the media coverage the teams and sponsors got from their racing activities. Eventually, in 1995, tiring of the constant travel, Paul moved into a role with London company Westminster Communications, handling public relations for the British Motorcycle Industry Federation, promoting the voice of the motorcycle industry to the press and politicians.

Also in 1995, he worked in schools, teaching communication skills to the students. It wasn’t his favourite job ever, but by all accounts, he was very good at it. No surprise there!

Amazingly, and I only found this out today from his partner, he ran a pub for two years. Who knew?

Paul's first love was the theatre, however, and his next move was a complete change, attending the University of Essex for three years to study drama and literature. He'd always regretted missing out on the university experience when he was younger, but now he grasped the opportunity with both hands. He was always certain he had made the right decision.

In 50 years of involvement with the drama festivals movement, Paul has been an actor, director, stage manager, company committee member, chairman, festival organiser and adjudicator.

As an actor, Paul appeared in the British All Winners Finals on two occasions, including a role the winning production of The Royal Hunt of the Sun in 1985. As a director, his production of Owen McCafferty’s Days of Wine and Roses was the winner of the British All Winners Finals in 2014.

Since becoming a member of the Guild of Drama Adjudicators, Paul has adjudicated in both the North and South of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England, the Isle of Man and Canada. He has officiated at the Irish Confined Finals, British, English, Ulster, Scottish Youth and Welsh finals, and three times at the British All Winners Finals.

Paul had just completed a second term as Chairman of the Guild of Drama Adjudicators, and is also a member of Scottish Association of Speech and Drama Adjudicators. In addition, he had the honour of chairing the Drama Festivals Consortium for several years.

I first met Paul when he came to see me adjudicate at Maidenhead. He was then an Associate Member, waiting to complete the necessary six festivals to be a full member. He said, “I really enjoyed that, great adjudication.” He then added, “pity you got the wrong result.” A mischievous sense of humour was one of his great qualities, and that one remark cemented our friendship which lasted for more than 25 years.

Paul’s sense of humour often showed through in his adjudications. As adjudicators, we are always meant to try and be positive at all times, and often say things like, ‘I think this was probably one rehearsal away from a really excellent performance.”  I went to watch him adjudicate once when there was a truly dreadful play on. It had absolutely nothing to commend it. His opening remark was, “I think this was probably one or two rehearsals away from the first rehearsal.” Even the team involved laughed.

Not many people knew that Paul was a humanist funeral celebrant, leading many non-religious funeral ceremonies that focus on the life, relationships and the legacy of the deceased, rather than religious beliefs or an afterlife. He was in constant demand due to his ability to show great empathy in difficult and emotional situations.

Recently, Paul joined Cheltenham Silver Band as an adult learner, the euphonium being his instrument of choice. I know that it gave him great pleasure, and somewhat surprisingly, we both shared a love of both military and brass bands, inherited from our fathers.

Paul Fowler was a lovely, kind, talented man. He had the remarkable talent of being able to communicate with anybody about anything. He was knowledgeable about many subjects, what I suppose would be best described as well-read. Or maybe a polymath. And he had a great ability to analyse problems and come up with the right answer.

I was proud to have been a close friend – and to have spent so much of our time together laughing.
He will be greatly missed by a great number of people. I am sure that everybody who knew Paul would want to send their love to his partner Rosemary.

Rest in peace, Paul.

                                                                                          Chris Jaeger MBE

 

(I am indebted to Neil Webster for supplying information about Paul’s early career.)