Paul Chanin

Paul Chanin, age 82, recently of Palm Beach, Fla., passed away peacefully on April 30, 2009, with his son, Steven, beside him. He was the second child of Sylvia and Irwin Chanin, brother of Marcy, Doris, and Joan, just like a broth er to Leona, father of Steven and Jeffrey, father-in-law of Karen, grandfather of Seth and Julia, first husband of Carol Chanin Stone and former husband of Car ol Shellington Chanin.

Paul attended school in New York at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School and Cornell University. After a hiatus during World War II as an Air Force and Navy cryptographer in the Pacific Theater, Paul returned to graduate from New York University in 1948 with a BCE in civil engineering.

In 1955 he joined the Navy Reserve and worked in Naval intelligence. Paul joined his father in business for about a decade, then charted his own course as a real estate developer, civil engineer, self-taught architect and restaurateur. He spent half his life in New York, and then experienced life, work, and love in the desert (Las Vegas), the mountains (Aspen), and the seaside (Palm Beach). During his years in Aspen, Paul owned Pinons and Chanin’s restaurants, and served on the boards of the Aspen Valley Medical Foundation, Aspen Community Foundation, the Aspen Camp School for the Deaf and the Pitkin County Bank and Trust.

A devoted philanthropist, Paul also served on the boards of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the American Technion Society, and the Simon Weisenthal Center Museum of Tolerance. Were he writing this, Paul would thank the Fieldston Eagles, the New York Jets, the Denver Broncos, the Miami Dolphins, Ajax Mountain, the gang at Pinons, Long Island Sound, and the Florida Gulf Stream for decades of enjoyment. Paul was a peaceful, generous and kind man, with a fine eye for design, a big smile and an even bigger heart. We will miss him dearly.