Paul-Leon was born on November 23, 1955 in Long Branch, NJ, the youngest brother of four boys. He attended Monmouth College, now Monmouth University, on a full trustee scholarship and graduated in 1977 with a double major in philosophy and foreign languages. Of us five children attending Monmouth University; Kenard Joseph, Paul-Leon, and Jean Anne attended on a full trustee scholarship. He also completed his undergraduate studies with a 4.0 GPA. He went onto to graduate school at the University of North Carolina and received his MA degree in 1980 in comparative literature. It was while attending UNC that he met Cathy (Heindryckx) Tuzeneu. They met at the Neumann Center at UNC during the fall 1979. They were married on May 1, 1982 in North Carolina. Paul Leon, as he is called by family, took a teaching position at Harpeth Hall Prep School for girls in 1982 teaching foreign languages. They moved to Nashville, TN for this position, and he has been teaching there for 33 years. They raised three daughters: Caroline Marguerite, (whose first name is derived from North Carolina -- the state where Paul-Leon and Cathy met), Marie-Claire, and Madeleine deSante.

An interesting story about his middle name of ‘Leon’ occurred while his Dad took the family to Las Vegas on his travel duty assignment testing the effectiveness of the atomic bomb with weather conditions. Paul Leon was only one and half years old while the family was on this travel duty assignment. They were living in an apartment while staying in Las Vegas. One of the neighbors at this apartment complex was French-Canadian. They had a son whom they were friendly with. His name was ‘Leon’. Since the family had always called ‘Paul’, ‘Paul-Leon’, he just assumed that anyone with the name of ‘Leon’ had to have a first name. So he simply called him, ‘No-Leon’.

One more interesting and funny story about Paul-Leon occurred, mostly likely this one summer, probably in the 1960’s or early 70’s, on a visit from Ed and Una Gifford (Ed Gifford was his Dad’s childhood best friend). Well, Kenard Joseph and Paul-Leon had a habit as kids as using their beds as a ‘trampoline’ despite repeated warnings from their Mom. Needless to say the beds were taking their toll under those conditions. On this particular occasion in the summer of Ed and Una’s visit, Stephen Edward deftly placed a football between the mattress and box springs so that as Paul-Leon sat on the edge of the bed he would feel the bump. They say, deftly, because Paul-Leon did not realize that a football was under his mattress. Just as he sat down on the bed, he could feel the lump. He was all in a sort of panic as he thought what he was going to do about sleeping that night.