Anyone who knows Paul Smiley knows the man loves to tell stories.

Funny stories about friends and family and himself.

Serious stories about people he knows and people he’s heard about who have gone through tough times.

Informative stories and commentaries about events from around town, around the country, around the world.

Now I want to tell a story about this storyteller — one that I hope will give you at least a snapshot of a longtime local educator and education advocate seeking election in November to the Danville Board of Education on Nov. 6.

Paul has logged some four decades in local education, most of which were spent as a teacher, coach and administrator at the Kentucky School for the Deaf.

But his long experience in education doesn’t stop with his career, isn’t confined to a “9-to-5” job. It also includes service of more than a dozen years, from 1996 through 2008, on the Danville school board. Paul may have left the board in 2008, but he did not leave public service. He served a two-year term on the Danville City Commission.

During his service on both the school board and on the city commission, Paul built a reputation as someone with his own strong convictions on particular issues but someone who wanted to hear from the public and also work with his colleagues on the board and commission to come up with the best possible action for the good of the residents of the whole Danville school district and for the residents of all of the city of Danville.

When someone runs for elective office, whether it’s for president of the United States or a seat on a school board, the candidate and his or her supporters often throw around words like “honesty,” “integrity,” “dedication,” “character,” “competence,” “cares about his fellow man and woman,” “compassion,” and “fairness.”

When talking about Paul, those words are not political platitudes but are true and accurate words to use in describing the many good points that make up the character of this earnest and gentle gentleman.

Allow him to have yet another story to tell, another chapter to write, another mission to accomplish in his long and tireless life of dedication to Danville’s schools and to their students, parents and teachers.

Herb Brock

Danville