Paula Buxbaum

1963 - 2021

Paula Buxbaum of North Adams died too soon on October 29, 2021, in a car accident. Paula (who allowed only her immediate family to call her by her childhood nickname "Polly") was a bright light for her family, friends, and community. Her special talent for creating welcoming spaces showed in her home; in her work with people, especially youth, in need; and most recently, in the vintage store she had long dreamed of opening: Williamstown's Bux Vintage.

Paula was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1963, the third of four Buxbaum children. She grew up in Newton, MA, attended Cabot School and Bigelow Junior High, and graduated from Newton North High School. She attended Hobart-William Smith College for a year, eventually earning a BA in English Literature from the Harvard Extension School in 1992.

It took a lot of courage for Paula to uproot herself from the Northeast, where she had lived her whole life, and head out on a West Coast adventure in the mid-nineties. After traveling a bit, she ended up in San Francisco, where - in typical Paula fashion - she quickly made friends, connections, and created a new home. She landed a job as volunteer coordinator for the Mill Valley Film Festival, where she met her future husband, Doug Jones. Paula developed expertise in volunteer recruitment and management, and program development - skills that led her on a career path working with non-profits. When she and Doug moved to Los Angeles, she took a job with School on Wheels, a program serving homeless youth where over eight years, she recruited, trained, placed, and supported a team of 100 tutors and 15 specialized lead volunteers, trained staff on recruitment and training of specialized volunteers, and expanded the program's reach.

When Doug was offered the position of Executive Director of Images Cinema in North Adams, MA, he, Paula, and their son, Wylie, moved back to her home state. Once again, she established herself in the community through her work. She served as director of the youth-focused Court Appointed Special Advocates program in Pittsfield, where she expanded the program fivefold. More recently, she was Executive Director of ROOTS Northern Berkshire Teen Center in North Adams, successfully shepherding that program through the pandemic. Just eight months ago, she left ROOTS to follow a lifelong dream to open a vintage store - a reflection of her love of art and cool finds, and especially of her desire to create welcoming spaces for all kinds of people.

An article in the Berkshire Eagle about Paula's passing encapsulates some of her professional journey and her impact on the people around her, including a reflection by a group of her young customers on Paula's impact on their community. Her store, they wrote, "allowed for a perfect melding together of her love of all things vintage and her love of people. Paula created such a beautiful space for so many people and made particularly queer youth feel so respected and valued especially for our creativity, fashion, and artistic pursuits. Her store was truly an extension of her own personality, and reflected how much of a giving person she was. Her store was more than a store. It was more like a space she facilitated for the community."

Paula navigated this world with great humor, with an eye for anything curious and whimsical. Her tastes in music, television, and movies were cutting edge, and she loved to share her discoveries. Paula took the mix tape to a higher level. A master curator, she was attuned to people's tastes, but was not afraid of challenging those with her own unique sensibility. All who knew her were recipients of this talent; Paula introduced so many of us to an offbeat band, movie, TV show, or book.

Paula leaves her husband of 19 years, Doug Jones of North Adams, MA; their son, Wylie Jones; her mother, Ann Buxbaum, of Newton, MA; sisters Laura Buxbaum and her husband Brian Dunn of Waldoboro, ME, and Gretchen Nash of West Roxbury, MA; brother Carl Buxbaum and his wife Dawn Sykes Buxbaum of Marblehead, MA; her mother-in-law Judy Jones; an uncle, Richard, and his wife Margery Buxbaum; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews. She also leaves a wide circle of dear friends in Massachusetts, California, and elsewhere. She was predeceased by her father, Robert Buxbaum, and her father-in-law, John Jones.

Donations in Paula's memory may be made to the Honoring Paula Fund of the Boston Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth (BAGLY) at bagly.org/honoringpaula.

A celebration of Paula's life will be held at a later date.