I am sad to report that the referee community lost a great individual yesterday. Paul Stanton of Birmingham, AL passed away. I could not begin to list all of Paul's accomplishments within USSF, NISOA, ODP, and Alabama. Most important of all is probably the hundreds of young and older officials he has mentored over the past 40 or so years, of which I am proud to be a part of. There is currently a funeral fund set up for the family at www.gofundme.com/paulstanton. In addition, I am starting to work on setting up a referee development fund in Paul's name. When the time comes, please consider donating a game fee to that fund. Mahalo Steve Buchthal SDA Hawaii
I met him twice. Once at a HS clinic and once at an association meeting. A great guy with a wealth of knowledge. And willing to stay until the last question was answered. He was the mentor to my home assignor. I hate I didn't know him better. He seemed to be one of the greats as a person, not just as a referee.
I got to meet him last year at ODP and he was a pleasure to be around. Learned a lot from him and very shocked to hear of his passing. All the best to his family and those around him.