Paul Hoffman

Paul Hoffman grew up on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. He began coxing crew at Phillips Academy, Andover and just kept at it, next at Bryanston School in England, and then at Harvard as a member of the Class of 1968. Paul coxed the First Freshmen and then the Varsity Heavyweight crews during his four years at Harvard and those crews never lost in collegiate competition. The Harvard crew won Gold for the USA at the Pan Am Games in 1967 at Winnipeg and won a surprising Silver Medal against the best of the European national crews at the European Championships in Vichy, France later that year. 

In 1968, the Harvard Eight won the Olympic Trials in Long Beach and qualified for the Mexico Games. Shortly after the Trials, Paul and Cleve Livingston, a rower on the crew, visited Professor Harry Edwards at San Jose State to inquire about the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR). After that visit and a visit by Professor Edwards with the full squad at Newell Boathouse in Cambridge, MA, a majority of the Harvard Crew, along with Professor Edwards, publically announced their support for the goals and ideals of the OPHR. They also stated their intention to try to stimulate a dialogue among all members of the Olympic Team headed to Mexico about the very real concerns of their black teammates as well as the unjust realities of the treatment not only of black athletes, but of African-Americans generally. 

Paul was at the track, seated with famed sports writer Pete Axthelm and the wives of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, for the 200m Finals. It was there that he gave his OPHR button to Silver Medalist Peter Norman of Australia who wore it proudly when standing with Tommie and John during the Awards Ceremony.

After the Games in Mexico, Paul spent time in West Africa and taught in the public school system on St. Thomas before returning to the Harvard Law School, and more rowing. He coxed the first nationally selected U.S. Eight Man Crew which won Silver in Munich. After a stint in Washington D.C., Paul went home to the Virgin Islands where for many years he practiced law, built a number of small businesses, and became active in local politics. In recent years he has spent increasingly more of his time writing.