Paul Polansky
February 17, 1942–March 26, 2021
Why
Polansky (no relation to Roman Polanski–with an i– as far as I could tell) is a good example of how a life can repurpose itself, even later in life.
Who
Paul Polansky was born on February 17, 1942 in Mason City, Iowa, to a family of Czech-German immigrants.
Polansky was an athletic youngster, adept as several sports. He was even a successful amateur boxer, winning a few titles. His sporting acumen got him a scholarship at Marquette University in Wisconsin, where he studied journalism, history, and rhetoric.
In 1963, when he was drafted for the Vietnam War, Paul left the U.S. for Spain, where he spend the next three decades. He supported himself by working as a freelance journalist and editor for some magazines in Madrid. After a few months he moved to a small town on the Southern-eastern coast of Spain, called Mojácar.
Mojácar was a sleepy town of about 1,800 people, and it’s population had been shrinking for years. But it had nice, warm weather and beaches on the Mediterranean sea. Polansky saw an opportunity to start a construction business, and he started doing just that, buying land cheaply and building houses and apartments on it.
