In Memoriam

‘The Contributor’ remembers vendor Paul Arndt for his generosity and dark humor

BY CARLI THARP

On Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, The Contributor said goodbye to beloved vendor, advocate, and friend: Paul Allen Arndt.

There is no simple way to sum up Paul’s life or personality in words. To say that he deeply loved his friends and The Contributor fits, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Paul loved people enough to act.

He expressed great generosity, even to the point of his own detriment. He stood up for The Contributor and for folks experiencing homelessness every time an opportunity arose. He had big ideas on how to help, and always had questions about what Nashville was doing next to help end homelessness.

Paul loved Nashville enough to get angry when people’s needs were not being met. He wanted everyone to do their part to make the world a better place, and he believed in hard work. He saw his friends at The Contributor doing their part by vending, creating microbusinesses and spreading important news. He heatedly demanded that those with power and money do their part to help those experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness in return. He fought against the stereotypes and clichés — that everyone can just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, or that poverty is a character flaw.

He loved with a ferocity that held leaders accountable, asked hard questions, solved problems, and challenged us all to do our absolute best for each other.

Paul cared about other people so much.

My hope — and I think his hope — for Nashville would be that we can all learn to love and demand justice for each other with kindness, but also with unrelenting strength, and maybe a little bit of dark humor.

We miss you so much already, Paul.

Paul A. wanted to ‘solve the world’s problems’

BY HANNAH HERNER

When Paul Arndt was in high school, he got in big trouble for selling shots of alcohol to other students from his locker — $1 per shot. He counted this as his first business, a sign of the resourcefulness that would stick with him for the rest of his life.

He had come to Nashville a few years ago to escape some of the cold of his home in Michigan, and camped under Jefferson Street Bridge for much of his time here. If he really had a choice of how to spend his time, he’d be out fishing, but it seems sitting in front of Puckett’s downtown selling The Contributor was a fine second choice. While he wasn’t selling a high number of papers, he was one of the most consistent and wellknown vendors to The Contributor staff.

If Paul had a catch phrase, it would probably be “what’s going on?” He had a voracious appetite for news, gossip, cigarettes and black coffee. Through his many submissions to the paper, he wanted to share good news, ways things were getting better for him. But he was also very honest about issues he saw and felt deeply that if he could just get the word out about what people experiencing homelessness needed, it could get better. Paul was up at all hours of the night just thinking about how to solve the world’s problems.

Paul made friends wherever he went — at his camp, in two different apartment complexes, at the office, on the street corner. He was a good conversationalist, took interest in other people, and gave away a lot of single cigarettes. The Contributor staff and volunteers worked hard to get him into housing, and a number of times he let others stay with him, even at risk of his own well-being.

On the other hand, Paul was very stubborn, and if someone crossed him, he was going to put up a fight.

Life had an unfair amount of challenges for Paul. What made it easier for him to manage is that he was always thinking about the future, and things he could look forward to.

Paul said once that he wanted to die with a Contributor in his hand. It didn’t happen that way, but he did die having left a mark on this paper, and many others including myself, through it.