At age 13 Paul has hunted big game in Africa with his father, not as a sport but to provide food for the station. He's had a leopard's face six inches from his own in the middle of the night where the only thing protecting him was the mosquito net. He has single handedly sailed a 38 foot ketch from Tahiti to Hawaii. Another time with only his wife and 13 year old son on board sailed their 42 foot cutter through a hurricane. Paul Stam was born of missionary parents in the northeast corner of the Belgian Congo just a few miles from both the Uganda and Sudan borders, which was about as far into Africa as you could go. Paul has always loved to write and no matter where he was or what he was doing tended to scribble down the things that came to mind. Among other things Paul has been a construction worker, university teacher and administrator and a sailboat skipper. Now at 81 Paul is retired and lives in Hawaii where he spends a lot of time on the potter's wheel making bowls and mugs and at the computer writing.