By Rita McInerney

Paul Leighton’s death at 24 ended a life overflowing with the desire to serve God and his fellow creatures. This desire to serve is his legacy to his parents and friends.

Paul was killed at about 9 p.m. last Dec. 1 when his car flipped over an embankment outside Tampa, Fla. He was just five minutes away from Our Lady of Perpetual Help church in Ybor City where he was to begin a year of volunteer service.

The pastor there, Father Joseph W. Brennan, flew here for Paul’s funeral at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Alpharetta. Afterward, some of Paul’s friends approached him and told him they would like to come down to Ybor City and help.

Since then, bonds have been formed among the priest who lost a willing volunteer; Lillian and Jim Leighton who lost their only child, and a group of young people who lost a happy, inspiriting role model.

“In the midst of tragedy there is this spiritual vitality from his parents, his friends. His parents are really special, they reflect what Paul was. It’s brought out the goodness of his friends. They were deeply affected by his simple model of goodness. He wasn’t preachy but in his own way he was very serious about his life and purpose,” Father Brennan said in a telephone interview with the Georgia Bulletin.

On Holy Thursday, March 27, with his parents present, a memorial service was celebrated and a computer center dedicated in his memory at the old church in what once had been a thriving area where tobacco from Cuba was made into fine cigars. There to do as much of Paul’s work as they could on their spring break from college or long Easter weekend from jobs were Jack Hodgkins and Trudy Minnear, close friends from Georgia Tech; Mike Baker, Georgia Tech senior, and several other members of the Singles Group at All Saints in Dunwoody.

Paul had planned to spend his volunteer year at Our Lady of Perpetual Help programming a computer for parish records, working on the restoration of the church and whatever else needed to be done.

Some of the readings at the memorial service were from Paul’s journal in which he had written of his desire to be the best witness for Christ that he could be. “Please keep me on fire” he said of his hope to keep his faith strong and to help others strengthen theirs.

“Thank you for another day to live on earth…loving friends, forgiving my sins, three meals a day, for my Christian friends, especially Jack Hodgkins…”

He praised God for “creating the world, for sending your son to die on the cross to forgive all men’s sins, for working and living in this world each day, for always doing your Father’s will.”

There was the feeling, that day, Father Brennan said, that Paul was with them. It was, he said, “a unique experience in this age of what love and dedication can do, how it can motivate other people.”

The Leightons put up a plaque in the computer room and then Jack Hodgkins “put words on the screen.” It was a moment of “deep and profound meaning, Father Brennan said. Jack wrote:

“In memory of Paul Leighton (Our son, brother and friend)

In loving dedication of our brother Paul Leighton who now lives in Paradise.

In his brief stay here, he built a bridge of hope between Atlanta, Georgia and Ybor City, Tampa, Florida.

We still feel his spirit among us, guiding and directing us, to do those things which are pleasing to God.”

Some of the young volunteers were there to arrive the next day. They made the trip for a friend “whose deep faith was inspiring to all of us. He was a person who always put others first, who was deeply involved in serving God and his fellow man,” Mike Baker said, adding that he had “never seen him with a frown on his face, he was always happy, in a good mood. He was always positive.”

Lillian Leighton said the young workers “took off the heavy front doors of the church, stripped them down and stained them and then hung them again.” They repainted the foyer of the church after stripping the old paint and spackling the walls. They painted walls in the parish house and did “anything that needed doing,” according to Mike who organized the work mission of the All Saints singles.

Several years ago Paul had listed three priorities in his personal journal: to get his bachelor’s degree from Marquette University, to attend Georgia Tech, and to be a missionary in Florida. The missionary ambition amazed Father Brennan who thought the chances of Paul realizing this hope were about a million to one. Yet things worked out, he said, after they met and “hit it off.” Paul, he said, “was the right person at the right place at the right time. Everything fell into place, almost too neatly.”

Jim Leighton believes his son looked at his year of volunteer service in Ybor City as “an opportunity to determine if he would go into the priesthood. Paul was searching for a vehicle which would allow him to be a better Catholic, a better Christian. He was a fantastic kid, in search of God in everything he did.”

Their shared faith was the foundation of their firm friendship, Jack Hodgkins said of his friend. They met shortly after both had begun the graduate honors program at Georgia Tech. Along with their bond of religion, they enjoyed fun things together, and running and weightlifting.

Jack doesn’t think his friend realized the impact his faith and commitment had on others. When Paul was leaving for Florida he told Jack what “a fantastic opportunity” his volunteer service was turning out to be. “It gives me a chance to witness when people ask me why I’m doing it. It really excites me to be able to explain why,” he confided.

Jack Hodgkins and Trudy Minnear made a trip to Tampa about two months after the accident to give Father Brennan $1,500 from Paul’s friends. Trudy, of Sandy Springs, was quoted in an article about Paul that appeared April 5 in the Tampa Tribune: “When the state highway patrol officer opened up his wallet, his cross fell out. That was the first identification he saw.”

His mother said Paul attended St. Jude’s and Marist schools before the Leightons were transferred to Minnesota in the 1970s. When they returned to this area four years later he was an undergraduate at Marquette. Home on vacation he would get together with his old friends in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody. Often, during the summer of the child murders, he would “load up a bunch of kids from All Saints and St. Jude’s and drive down and tutor the children.” At Christmas, he would help deliver St. Vincent de Paul food baskets to the needy. “He always kept busy doing what he could,” she said.

Now his friends are helping, doing what they can. A few weeks ago a racquetball facility on Lower Roswell Road turned over its court for a night for a benefit contest arranged by his All Saints friends. Proceeds were sent to Our Lady of Perpetual Help where $2,000 has been received in his memory from the singles groups at All Saints, St. Jude’s and St. Thomas Aquinas from people at Georgia Tech and IBM where he had worked before his ill-fated trip to Florida.

There is a belief among his friends that Paul’s legacy will continue to unite his parents and friends here with Father Brennan and his parish. Both Jack and Mike said there is talk of going down again.

To the Leightons, the young people have become a source of strength. It’s become a Sunday routine, they said, for Jack to call and ask them to go to the evening Mass, the singles Mass, at All Saints. Afterwards, the group will take the Leightons out for “a few beers.”

Jack and her son enjoyed talking to each other about God, Mrs. Leighton said.

“They became like brothers. Now Jack has become like a son to us. Jack says Paul would have wanted it that way. We’re there for him and he’s there for us.”