If Trump’s Fundraising Numbers Are Any Clue, He’s in Serious Trouble

[chaoyang]

Note: The recent passing of Bill Young, talk of international schools and my own recollections again reminded me of something I have long intended to do – write up a brief memorial on Paul DeMuth, the founder of Lanna International School. He certainly deserves to be better remembered.

In 1991, I took a job at the Nation newspaper in Bangkok, but fled after six weeks of chaos and culture shock. Their computers didn't have a spell-check function, yet the newsroom lacked a single dictionary of its own – you had to buy one if you wanted one and woe to anyone who attempted to borrow the proud possessions of the mostly Indian subeditors that then worked there. To get a glimpse of the paper the next day you again had to buy your own.

What a nightmare.

Planning to return to the States, I travelled up to Chiang Mai to visit a friend, and while out at the Up 2 You bar, met Dean, whose life-long friend Paul DeMuth was starting an international school. Dean reckoned Paul needed a guy like me to help edit, format and publish the initial materials needed for the school.

I went to Paul's house near Tung Hotel Road and met a friendly – even charming – little guy in a wheelchair. It seems he had been about the last child to get polio in the U.S. while growing up in southern Texas and had been confined to the chair most all of his life.

By the time I met him, he was in his mid-40s, had fathered three children with his Thai wife, was a fluent speaker, reader and writer of Thai and had come to Chiang Mai after selling his successful Thai restaurants in Minneapolis. Dean, a Vietnam Vet, came with him and served as driver, bodyguard, best buddy and even investor.

Paul and I hit it off and I became his first full-time employee. Little did I suspect the tumultuous, contentious path we would follow in the founding of such a clean operation as a school – teaching is a noble notion, but some of the players in the field are far from selfless.

Paul put up his money first, which was to be followed by funds from his own teacher and mentor, an administrator at Chiang Mai University (CMU). That didn't happen.

Various groups of interested or disaffected parents promised to join us. Most of them never did.

At a public meeting on the school with the International Women's Group, our proposed headmaster fielded questions from a hostile audience, then left the next day for the States, never to return.

Thai banks refused to lend Paul money after his "mentor" at CMU left him high and dry.

I often didn't get paid. Dean somehow came up with some money from back home to keep us going.

Still Paul, quite literally, kept wheeling and dealing. He found a group that owned a number of property developments that had failed, one of them right next to the airport. A deal and line of townhouses were cobbled together to make classrooms and the newly christened Lanna International School was set to open.

Paul, extremely stressed and in failing health, returned to Minnesota to raise more funds. Tragically, he died instead. If recall the dates correctly, I knew him less than a year.

But the school opened, struggled, endured and is today a successful and important part of the community.

Over the years, Paul's relatively short time in Chiang Mai faded from memory, though while he was alive he was certainly among the most vibrant and respected members of the expat community.

I thought I should write it down, get it on the record and into institutional memory.

I write this in honor of my friend, Paul DeMuth, a visionary, nice guy and one hell of a wildcat in a wheelchair.

[lannarebirth]

My children have attended Lanna I.S.T. all their academic lives and will be finished in a couple of years and that's a story I didn't know. Thanks for sharing it.

As a side note, I wish someone who knew Philip ( I never knew his last name). once a modearator here at ThaiVisa "P1P" could better eulogize him than has been done here sofar. Our children attended school together and I like him and found him interesting. I'm very sorry no one that knew him better than me has taken the time to remeber this very nice and kind man.

[Beetlejuice]

Thank you for this thread and for bringing this man to our attention, facts that I am sure not many of us were aware of.

2 of my children attended the Lanna International school and both have done extremely well.

I wonder why they do not put up some sort of memorial plaque for Paul DeMuth at the school if he was the founder?

[chaoyang]

I wonder why they do not put up some sort of memorial plaque for Paul DeMuth at the school if he was the founder?

You might want to ask Surin, his widow and owner of the school, about that.

The school website has a nice tribute to him:

Tribute to Paul

[Beetlejuice]

I wonder why they do not put up some sort of memorial plaque for Paul DeMuth at the school if he was the founder?

You might want to ask Surin, his widow and owner of the school, about that.

The school website has a nice tribute to him:

Tribute to Paul

I had dealings with the owner of the school.

I`ll keep my thoughts to myself.

[Flatouthruthefog]

<br />My children have attended Lanna I.S.T. all their academic lives and will be finished in a couple of years and that's a story I didn't know.  Thanks for sharing it.<br /><br />As a side note, I wish someone who knew Philip ( I never knew his last name). once a modearator here at ThaiVisa "P1P" could better eulogize him than has been done here sofar.  Our children attended school together and I like him and found him interesting.  I'm very sorry no one that knew him better than me has taken the time to remeber this very nice and kind man.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

A very interesting thread indeed, and so Amazingly positive!

Following your slight digresion, I was also privileged to know Phil (p1p) Harris for several years here. I wrote a short Obit on him which may still be visible on this thread.

But like the main man of this thread (who sadly I did not know), he deserves much more.

PM me re Phil if you like, giving your own e-mail address.

[Lizard2010]

RIP :jap:

[ianf]

I wonder why they do not put up some sort of memorial plaque for Paul DeMuth at the school if he was the founder?

You might want to ask Surin, his widow and owner of the school, about that.

The school website has a nice tribute to him:

Tribute to Paul

I had dealings with the owner of the school.

I`ll keep my thoughts to myself.

Likewise.

[chaoyang]

I wonder why they do not put up some sort of memorial plaque for Paul DeMuth at the school if he was the founder?

You might want to ask Surin, his widow and owner of the school, about that.

The school website has a nice tribute to him:

Tribute to Paul

I had dealings with the owner of the school.

I`ll keep my thoughts to myself.

Likewise.

I left the operation shortly after Paul's demise due to similar feelings. While the school has survived, I think it would have been a much different place had Paul lived.

His three kids left too and moved back to the States, as did Dean.