Paul Jay Mittman

Paul Jay Mittman

[6-20-1946] – [2-24-2026]

Paul Jay Mittman died the very same way he lived life – with determination, humor, courage, and grace. He was a man of extraordinary depth and kindness: a defender of the vulnerable, a lover of music and animals, a world traveler, and a lifelong friend to all who knew him. 

Paul grew up in Florida, where even as a middle schooler he was drawn to the rebellious. He would cut class to watch Muhammad Ali train for his legendary bout against Sonny Liston — a glimpse, perhaps, of the fighter’s spirit Paul himself would carry throughout his life. Paul attended university of Florida, was a member of Tau Epsilon Pi, where he made lifelong friends. As a young man, he played pickup football against his beloved Miami Gators players, once intercepting none other than the great Steve Spurrier.

Paul was a man of the world in every sense. He traveled to Israel and across Europe as a young man, often hitchhiking with nothing more than a loaf of bread, a few ounces of cheese, and a backpack. He never shied from new cultures and different peoples. He spent many wonderful summers in Jamaica where he fell in love with its people, culture, food and music, making lifelong friends and memories. A child of the 1960s counterculture, Paul marched against the Vietnam War and stood alongside those fighting for civil rights for all Americans. He became, for a time, a bodyguard to Abbie Hoffman, the firebrand activist and member of the Chicago Seven. He was there watching, participating, believing.

Paul first found his lifelong love of music with Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode, scribbling “best guitar solo” in his yearbook. Paul watched from the audience the Beatles perform live on The Ed Sullivan Show, and he remained a devoted fan of rock and roll for the rest of his life. Music ran through the fabric of who he was. He counted among his close friends the brilliant 1970s singer Minnie Riperton and her producer husband Dick Rudolph, and he even babysat a young Maya Rudolph, who would grow up to become a celebrated entertainer in her own right.

Paul went on to earn his degree and become a Physician Assistant, dedicating more than twenty years of his career to serving veterans at the VA in Asheville, North Carolina. He specialized in mental health, and his work was not confined to the walls of a hospital. It was not uncommon to see Paul downtown, stopping to speak with every homeless veteran he encountered, asking them if they needed anything, when they had last taken their medications, and letting them know someone saw them and cared about them.

When asked how he had such a gift with deeply challenged service members, Paul answered simply: “I pay attention to them. They need to know someone cares for them and loves them.” Many of those veterans knew his name and called out to him on the street. Paul cared for the least of us and so was the best of us.

Paul was a lifelong lover of animals and a devoted dog lover. His warmth extended to every creature he encountered, four-legged or otherwise.

Paul is survived by the many friends whose lives he touched and shaped: Joshua Hughes, Ashleigh Redmond, Glen and Julia Huberman, Bruce Hurwitch, Elli Daly and Michael Daley, Jeff Sarrow, David Hoch, Jay Behrman, Tony Gray, Joanne Harvin, Bill Whalen , Jill Ruhlman, Jim and Elizabeth Michalets, Steve Beilinson, Angie Wallice, Clive Malcolm, his sister Ellen Mittman and many others whose names are written not on a page but in the memories they carry of a man who lived a full life. Please consider giving a donation in Paul’s memory to Asheville Humane Society.

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