Paul Andrew Clapper, the son of Frances May Bulinsky Clapper and Gean Paul Clapper, was born in Charleston, S. C. on July 15, 1973. He has one sister, Marianne, and one brother Jason. Paul moved with his family to Reston, Virginia in 1976 and to Tabor, Iowa, in 1979.
Paul went to Fremont-Mills School in Tabor, IA and was a well rounded student participating in many extra curricular activities. He received awards for baseball, basketball, band, speech and National History Contest.
He was awarded the first Shannon Foster Memorial Sportsmanship Award for baseball which was voted on by his peers. Paul also served as Art Club President, member of the Student Council, Publications Staff and Staff Photographer. He combined his love of art and sports by designing a special shirt for the weight lifters at Fremont-Mills and also painted a mural on the wall of the weight room. Paul was selected State "Youth of the Month" for August 1991 by the Knights of Columbus and named "Youth of the Year" by the local Council of the Knights of Columbus in Glenwood, IA. Paul liked to work with the younger children and was a peer teacher in art for two years.
Paul's passion was art and photography in which he excelled at an early age. He won many art and photography awards in high school and was award an art and photography scholarship to Grand View College in Des Moines. His entry to college was delayed one year when Paul found out he had cancer in August 1991. Paul underwent chemotherapy from August to December 1991 and then flew to New York in January 1992 for surgery.
.In the fall of 1992, Paul attended Grand View College where he studied art and photography and also played on the baseball team. After a year at Grand View he realized he preferred a career in photography and transferred to the Photography Program at Metro Community College in Omaha where he earned an Associate Degree ( With Honors ) in Commercial Photography in 1995. During college he worked as a commercial and free-lance photographer and became a full time photographer after graduation. In November 1996, Paul moved to Atlanta, Georgia where he continued his photography career while taking advanced photography courses at the Creative Circus in Atlanta
Words cannot fully explain Paul's life or the impact that he had on others in his short life time. As a child he was inquisitive with often an adult slant to his questions and an intuitive grasp of artistic things. As an adult, he liked to debate and argue logic, philosophy, religion, etc. and just when you thought you had him convinced of your point of view, he came up with a different angle. After his first bout with cancer, he took time to counsel young people who also had cancer and gave many renewed hope after his visits. Paul also took photographs of children with terminal illnesses at the University of Nebraska Medical Center for their parents.
When Paul was in the hospital for all those long months in isolation, he never waned the focus of attention to be on himself but greeted everyone with an "up" attitude and quickly switched the topic of conversation to his visitors. Paul also had a very strong faith in God which helped him face the last days of his life with great courage, grace and dignity of character.
Paul was a perfectionist about his work and the photographs chosen for the first calendar are probably not what he would have selected as his best work but they are the ones we believe show his varied interests and talents.
Paul's love of sports is portrayed by his photos of baseball and volleyball - September's volleyball is a reminder of his league play in Omaha, July shows his own Grand View red baseball shoes & October - his interest in baseball history. His facination with intellectual pursuits is expressed by Februrary's chess set. His eye for color and form shows up in January's box of chalk and June's fan. Paul liked the diversity of flowers as expressed by the prints of March, May and August. He was also very patriotic and used the flag as the focus of many shots including October's old time baseball and November's salute to veterans. Paul also had a witty, whimsical side as seen in December's cookies and milk ( perhaps sampled by Santa ) and then there is April - had the music student gotten tired of practicing and run off to play baseball?
Reverand Paul Monahan of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church in Glenwood, IA, said that he could see all of us expressed in the vivid colors of Pauls photograph of the box of chalk and that Paul was the red chalk - the one that stood out! Paul made a lasting impression on everyone with his charming personality, his winning ways and his ability to get others to talk about themselves. He would be very pleased that his collection of artistic work is to be used to benefit others.