The Paul Shields Scholarship Award has been established at St. Joseph’s High School to honor the Catholic laymen of the same name who is critically ill of a rare brain disease.

The establishment of this fund is a fitting tribute to a man who seemed always to give more than he took.

In a business where vanity is not uncommon, he didn’t absorb it, but used his communicative talents not only to earn a living, but to further his Church, his fellow man and this newspaper.

The first time I ever saw Paul off the television screen, he appeared in the Saints Peter and Paul pulpit, one of a round of speeches he made in behalf of The Bulletin.

His evangelical zeal gave the impression that his mission was not a duty, but a fulfilled desire. When he contacted me some months later about taking the job as editor, I was honored.

He dropped by later to inquire about the progress of the paper, which, as chairman of the Archdiocesan Communications Board, he was called on so often to defend.

Paul, 35, is now at Johns Hopkins Hospital in his native Baltimore and should be transferred to another hospital there in a few days. He had been WAGA-TV news director for four years and an account executive for the past four months.

Many will be saddened by his illness, because he touched the lives of many in meaningful ways.

He was especially interested in youth, thus the scholarship fund at the school where he frequently talked to students.

He and his wife, Mary Ellen, parents to two daughters, often acted as foster parents to others.

He likes other people, too, all sorts of people. Candlelight dinners at the Shields’ home were noted for their companionship and conversation. Bishops, priests, rabbis, ministers, mayors and just plain folks were eager to accept his invitations.

“Paul Shields is my idea of what the active Christian should be,” Bishop Joseph Bernardin once said.

He was such a popular lector at the Cathedral that parishioners made special efforts to attend his Mass. His regular visits to the rectory there always occasioned an enjoyable evening.

Dr. Sam Williams, a Negro minister and civil rights activist, was a special friend and Paul often attended his church.

The popular layman’s wife would often feed him the proper lines and he would respond with a humorous story, to the delight of those around them.

A man so human, yet so Catholic, deserves to be honored.

Contribute to the Paul Shields Scholarship Award, Father Paul Kelley, St. Joseph’s High School, 320 Courtland St., NE, Atlanta, Ga.