Photo credit: David Woolpy
Paul Heiman stands proudly before his horse riding memorabilia
By David Woolpy
Assistant Editor
November 9th, 1938, Kristallnacht, Night of Broken Glass, is a moment in time Paul Heiman will never forget. Nazis burned Jewish homes and businesses, committed countless acts of violence and arrested 30,000 Jewish men, confining them in concentration camps. Paul Heiman will never forget it because he was there. And because one of those men was Charles Heiman, his father. The Nazis imprisoned Charles in Dachau, while 12-year-old Paul was left at home because he was too young to be taken.
But the story does not start that night. Like many great accounts, this one began years before in 1920. Charles Heiman ran a textile business and sold materials to small stores. A woman who ran one of these shops had a son who was in jail for political reasons. She came to Charles and explained that her family thinks her son is worthless and refused to help. She asked for 2,000 marks to get her son out of jail and promised to pay it back. Charles, who always believed in charity, gave her the money and said, let your son pay it back whenever he can. I’ll help him get a job and into college. I’ll do whatever I can. And Charles did just that.
Paul Heiman tells the rest of the story in a shaky voice with tears in his eyes.
Despite the passage of years, the woman’s son, whom Charles helped years before, used his connections to get Charles released. After imprisonment and starvation in Dachau, an emaciated Charles Heiman came home. No one really knows how, but the man whom Charles helped was able to free him. And all Charles said later was, “You do good and it comes back double.”
That moment, that crucial relationship between two people, set the tone for the rise of the Heiman family, and changed Paul’s life forever.
As many Cincinnatians know, the Heiman’s escaped from Germany and went to England. During that time Charles’ visa applications were rejected by 22 different countries. Yet eventually they made their way to Cincinnati. Charles later started Standard Textile, which today remains a prominent success story. But Paul can tell you, it did not start off so rosy. In fact, Paul’s first duty was hauling inventory up to their third-floor apartment, then back down when it was sold days later.
Standard Textile grew slowly, primarily because Charles had a very conservative business outlook and he did not believe in borrowing money. Instead, he steadily built-up credit.
To this day, Paul holds to this principle with passion. His advice to young entrepreneurs: Don’t borrow money. If you can’t pay for it, you’re likely to go bankrupt.
So once Paul was in America, he began his education. Unfortunately, education and social life was challenging for a Jew, and Paul was German, which alienated him further. Like many young Jews today, Paul endured antisemitism, fear and hatred. But he was not the sort of young man to cower. He got in fights frequently, which lead to a close relationship with the school principal. Because of that relationship, the principal became one of Paul’s best defendants, speaking out about antisemitism and standing up for Paul, something rare at the time. And this bond marks another personal relationship between two individuals that became a building block of Paul’s legacy. Despite the social difficulties, Paul graduated as a star student.
Paul’s professional development went fast. In 1942, in the midst of World War II, Charles Heiman struggled keeping workers at Standard Textile due to so many men going to war. So, he hired his 16 year old son for $15 per week. Paul stayed with Standard Textile for the next 83 years, leading the company through exponential growth, and to this day maintains his contacts at work.
During those years Paul took many of his father’s tenets to heart. Specifically, the importance of personal relationships strongly imprinted on Paul. As Charles worked to get credit from companies all over the country, he was continually rejected. Charles asked one company manager for $1,000 credit, but he was again rejected. Then the man said to Charles, my dad is German and he managed this company before me. He loves to spend time with other Germans so he can speak his native language. Would you have lunch with us? Charles agreed and had lunch with the man and his father. The two Germans happily discussed their homeland in an engaging conversation. After lunch, the man told his son, I want you to give Mr. Heiman $2,000 credit and I will sign for it. That was the break that Charles desperately needed, and he leveraged that credit for more, which started Standard Textile down the road of greatness. But for Paul the moment marks yet another personal relationship which lead to future accomplishments.
Paul expresses the idea with pure sincerity. “I tell my sales people, if they don’t like you, you can give the goods way, they won’t buy from you. So, you have to sell yourself first.” Paul has lived his professional and personal life adhering to this ideal.
The tremendous success of Standard Textile and Paul’s role in it is well known in Cincinnati. He was CEO for many years, succeeded by his son and now by his grandson. Paul says with pride that during the first 10 years Standard Textile had $1 million in sales. “Now we do that in a day.” Likewise, the company has many employees who stay their entire careers, because — as Paul says — we take care of them.
Not only does Paul take care of people professionally, he has used his business accomplishments to better the community. Paul’s charity work is too lengthy to detail here, but two things stand out.
First, was Paul’s work to restore Jewish Cemeteries in the region. Many such places in the area had been neglected and forgotten. Some were overgrown, tombstones falling over and other issues due to lack of care. Thanks to Paul and other generous donors’ contributions, Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati (JCGC) was formed, which all local Jewish Cemeteries have now joined. They get funding through all their member organizations, and take care of the cemeteries year-round.
The second philanthropic accomplishment Paul loves to discuss is his work with developing the Jewish community in the northwest area of greater Cincinnati. Jews there are often more detached from the larger Jewish community further south. In fact, Paul believes he was one of only two Jews living near Mason when he first moved there long ago. So, for years Paul has generously supported this cause. In recent times, this philanthropy has made the Jewish school and afterschool program in the Jewish Discovery Center possible, which helps young people become a part of their religion and religious community.
After learning about this incredible man’s long, exciting and fruitful life, we all want to know what stands out most for him. What holds a special place in his heart? He answers without hesitation, “My horses.” Paul always wanted to have horses, but his father thought they were nothing but hard work, so Paul waited. After his father died, Paul bought a horse farm in 1980. He took riding lessons because he wanted to show his own horses. Well, the trainers told him he was too old. But, sounding like his father, he said, maybe you’re not the right trainer for me. So, he hunted for a better one and soon he entered competitions. At 62, he told the trainer, don’t think of me as an old man. Treat me like everyone else. “Age is just a number.” He entered his first riding competition with eight contestants, and says with pride, “I finished 6th.”
Well, that moment was the beginning of Paul’s horse showing career. Before it was over, he won the US and Canadian National Championship twice, and was the United States Champion a stunning eight times. He continued competing until his 90th birthday. To put it another way, Paul did more with horses from 60 to 90 than most of us could have done in a lifetime.
But regardless of his love of horses, Paul Heiman is a family man, a person who puts relationships above everything. Just listening to him tell his life story demonstrates his love and devotion to his father, his mother, his wife and children, as well as his plethora of grandchildren, whom he speaks of with delight and affection. Paul loves and cares for his community, the business he helped to build and all those people he has touched along the way. On Sunday, September 7th, Paul Heiman turned 99. You would never guess it. He and his legacy remain a municipal treasure for Greater Cincinnati well into the future.
