Paul was born on March 9, 1947, in Philadelphia to Samuel and Devorah (Rabinowitch) Goldenberg, with two older brothers Leonard and Howard. He was raised in Juniata Park, and graduated in class 223 from Central High School. Sight unseen, he enrolled in Bowling Green State University of Ohio to study Social Work. While he struggled to find a good deli in his only four years away from Philadelphia, he did find love. He met Kathy Pratt in 1968, proposed on the Staten Island Ferry a few weeks later, and they married on the first full day of Spring the following year. They returned to Philadelphia where Paul began his long career as a social worker. He earned his MSW from University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from Textile University, now Thomas Jefferson University.
Paul’s self-described goal was to do something that mattered, and that he did. He worked at social service agencies supporting children and adults with disabilities, as well as Southeast Asian refugee families settling in the Philadelphia area. After obtaining his Nursing Home Administrators license, Paul opened and led several skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers around the region. During his extended illness in his final years, Paul was surrounded by nurses and aides who had worked with him, and each had a story (or more than one) about their time together.
For years, Paul taught at Keneseth Israel religious school and ran the youth group program; filling busloads of kids, he led trips to amusement parks, cultural institutions, and whitewater rafting adventures. A lifelong theater-lover, Paul subscribed to many theaters in Philadelphia and relished trips up to New York City for front-row seats on Broadway or climbing stairs to experimental theater. He and Kathy traveled extensively around the country and the world, and he could always spot the best place in each city to open his imagined hoagie shop, if only they could ship Amoroso’s rolls there. Once Kathy fatefully won a set of golf clubs and lessons in a WHYY raffle, which she gifted to Paul, leading to a regular habit of weekend golf outings with friends and planning family vacations around desirable greens.
His commitment for voting rights had him regularly canvassing with the Democratic Party, and he was a dedicated blood donor for decades. His passion for the Phillies was infectious, and he held the belief that baseball was the best game because everyone got the same number of chances to try. He was able to see many memorable Phillies losses and a few memorable wins in person including the 1993 Pennant victory and the 2008 Division clincher, plus the 1980 World Series parade.
Paul is survived by Kathy (Pratt) Goldenberg, his wife of 54 years, their two children Seth and Leigh, daughter-in-law Tara Gupta, son-in-law Aaron Bauman, and three granddaughters Asha, Lena, and Tilde who all carry Paul’s love of a good one-liner and his Goldenberg name. He is loved and remembered by extended family and beloved friends in Philadelphia and around the world.
Private burial will be held at Whitemarsh Cemetery. The family will accept visitors at Paul’s children’s homes: in Elkins Park on Thursday, April 13 from 3-7pm, and in South Philadelphia on Sunday, April 16 from 2-6pm, with a Shiva Minyan at 4:30pm. A memorial service is planned for Saturday, May 6 at 2pm at the Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia.
Paul would want you to make sure your voter registration is up to date, and that you vote in your upcoming election (primaries, too, not just the general). To carry on his commitment to making your community a better place, memorial contributions can be made to ACLU Pennsylvania (https://www.aclupa.org/), Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society PA (https://hiaspa.org/), SEAMAAC (https://www.seamaac.org/) or HFC, which cares for families impacted by Alzheimer’s (https://www.wearehfc.org/).
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.lambfuneralhomeinc.com for the Goldenberg family.
