Paul Decker, a supremely gifted writer and the second employee at Chiat/Day, died in Portland, Oregon, on February 19th. He is survived by his wife, Kitty O'Keefe.
Here's one of the first emails I received from Paul.
Confirming his C/D hiring memory, I walked in the door after Chuck Phillips as the second new C/D employee. We might have tied for the honor of #1 that day, if I had found a parking place closer to the Olympic Blvd. office.]]>I was the agency's first broadcast producer/writer, after working as a writer for John Urie & Associates, a highly regarded film and commercial production studio of the 60s. Like Urie, Jay and Guy were a treat to work for, because of their unrelenting demand for kickass creative. The more typical agency standard then was creative expedience.
I would have contacted your fine JayDay site earlier had I not been forced to leave L.A. and resettle in a remote, small town in the northern most tip of Oregon, at least until the repercussions of a certain incident were shelved. It was a sauce and feathering attack that erupted at the British Consulate on Wilshire Blvd., during a black-tie dinner, with serious political/economic implications for both the U.S. and Britain.
The object of the attack was the wife of the chairman of a huge oil concern in Europe. She got sauced and feathered by my companion (whom I'll call Miss X), an otherwise soulful fado singer from Portugal who was quite adept at slinging her boa feathers soaked with bananas Foster when wined and provoked.
As you can imagine, all hell broke loose, especially when the wife attempted to retaliate in kind. But instead of hitting Miss X, she doused a West Coast oil mogul, who was intent on negotiating a deal for North Sea oil reserves.
I will spare you further details.
After C/D and before the S&F humiliation, I had rewarding writing years with Needham, Chickering/Howell, Della Femina, k/d/p and others. Up here, while in exile, I've enjoyed being a jazz dj on the local NPR station and other pursuits in self-entertainment.
Paul Decker
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