Obituary: Boyd C. Paulson, Jr., affordable housing advocate Obituary: Boyd C. Paulson, Jr., affordable housing advocate (December 14, 2005)

Boyd C. Paulson Jr., a professor of civil engineering at Stanford University and longtime advocate for affordable housing, died of colon cancer on December 1 at his Menlo Park home. He was 59.

A civil engineer who worked on major construction projects, including the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, Mr. Paulson was also an authority on the design and construction of affordable housing. He served on the boards of two of the Bay Area's leading nonprofit programs for low-income housing -- Peninsula Habitat for Humanity and the Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition.

In addition to volunteering his own time, Mr. Paulson enlisted the help of engineering students through graduate courses that required hands-on construction of new homes at Habitat for Humanity building sites. For his efforts, the university awarded him a 2004 Miriam Aaron Roland Volunteer Service Prize, which is given annually to faculty members who have shown a personal commitment to community service.

Mr. Paulson was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His father was a project manager in heavy construction and the family moved to projects around the world. In 1962 and 1963, he and his family lived in a remote construction camp in Australia, where he met his future wife, Jane Kingdon, in high school. They were married in 1970.

Mr. Paulson attended the University of Utah, transferring to Stanford where he eventually earned three degrees in civil engineering: a bachelor's degree in 1967, a master's in 1969 and a doctorate in 1971.

At 21, just after completing his undergraduate degree at Stanford, Mr. Paulson was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. He became one of the early patients of cancer researchers Dr. Henry Kaplan and Dr. Saul Rosenberg at Stanford Hospital.

In 1974, Mr. Paulson joined the Stanford faculty in the graduate Construction Engineering and Management Program in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He remained on the faculty for 31 years. He was the author of two books and more than 100 papers.

Throughout his career, Mr. Paulson maintained close ties with the construction industry, serving as principal investigator for more than 20 projects funded by the federal government and others.

He worked on two of the largest U.S. urban rail projects in the last half of the 20th century -- BART and Metrorail in Washington, D.C., as a researcher focusing on lessening the disruption caused by construction in urban areas.

In 1995, he volunteered to oversee construction of Habitat for Humanity's $2 million, 24-unit condominium project in East Palo Alto.

Mr. Paulson was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society for Engineering Education, the Urban Land Institute and Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi honor societies.

He received many professional honors. In 1990-91, he received senior faculty research and teaching scholarships from the Fulbright Foundation and the British Council. He was elected to the National Academy on Construction in 2001.

Mr. Paulson is survived by his wife, Jane Paulson; son Jeffrey Paulson and father Boyd C. Paulson, all of Menlo Park; daughter Laura Paulson of Culver City; sisters Virginia Vadnais of Moraga, Beth Krewedl of Tahoe Donner, and Kathy Icenogle of Dunstable, Massachusetts.

A memorial service will be held Tuesday, February 7, at 2 p.m. at Memorial Church on the Stanford campus.

Donations may be made to Doctors Without Borders, Peninsula Habitat for Humanity in Redwood City, the Community Association for Rehabilitation in Palo Alto, or a favorite charity.

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