Paul was born in Oswego, New York in 1951. He earned his BSEd at the University of Georgia, in Athens. He minored in sculpture, becoming fascinated with glass while in school.

He subsequently studied at Penland School of Crafts. He then joined a cooperative craft community and continued to teach himself, designing and making his own equipment, developing his colors and refining his forms.

In 1980 he married Barbara, a potter, and began his own studio and family. They have a daughter and twin boys.

In 1990, the family bought land and a hand built house "We chose our place here because I need to have contact with the land. I can walk out my door and be in the woods. Our house faces a woods, complete with a creek with ravines and beaver dams. It is like living in a park. My images reflect what is around me. When I worked in my old studio, I had to go somewhere else to recharge. Now I can do it walking from the studio to the house."

When asked why he chose glass for his medium: "I like the immediacy of glass. I can conceptualize and finish a piece in one process. Glass is like watercolor. It needs to be in your mind ahead of time and done swiftly. If you lose a piece, you learn something and go to another. You learn to see the potential of the work and make allowances for those special things that happen when it is in process. You save the 'mistakes' you like and correct the others." Minimize this information.