Off Hours January 2008

Dr. David Paulson, president of Genoa Business Forms, Sycamore, Ill., served as the company’s sales manager in the 1970s. He left to earn a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Illinois—Urbana. He traveled the world, including Tequila, Mexico (Above) and Barcelona, Spain.

As a child, David Paulson, president of manufacturer Genoa Business Forms, Sycamore, Ill., traveled extensively with his family. He was charmed by Mexico in particular. “Their life and culture is so different from my rural Illinois upbringing that it fascinated me,” he says. “I went on to master the language and live and work in their culture.”

Paulson studied Spanish and eventually earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois—Urbana by writing a dissertation called The Effects of Task Focus and Grammatical Knowledge on Writing in Spanish as a Second Language. The dissertation focuses on teaching methodology: “It’s about the importance of presenting a clear and detailed task, which then elicits a much finer product from the student, and that’s translated into the workplace,” he says. “Giving our employees clear, detailed projects allows us to produce with much higher accuracy levels.”

Paulson’s father founded Genoa Business Forms in 1957, and David served as sales manager in the ’70s, after he graduated from college. Still, his parents never assumed their children would work there forever. “Our parents encouraged us to go other places and have other work experiences,” says Paulson.

He comes from seven generations of teachers from his mother’s side. When he left home to earn his degrees, education seemed like a natural career for him to pursue. He eventually moved to Spain and served as a visiting professor of English composition at the University of Barcelona.

Soon he was traveling to Spanish-speaking countries around the world and publishing work on international relations. He met with political and military leaders, and documented his experiences. “I was sent to Guatemala by the Center for Global Education to work in communities of people who had been driven out of the forest by the country’s 36-year civil war,” he says. “In Nicaragua, I was a consultant to the Ministry of Education on the process of re-democratization of the country and their educational system.” He also has traveled to Chile: “They had their dirty war in the ’70s, and thousands of people disappeared. I met with many of the families and mothers of the people who disappeared,” he says.

When he finally returned to Genoa Business Forms, Paulson turned his language skills into business opportunities. Distributors whose clients submitted files with Spanish text asked Paulson to review them for accuracy. Now the company provides editing and translation services. Paulson also continues to teach and was voted Instructor of the Year at Kishwaukee College, Malta, Ill.

Although he doesn’t travel as much as he used to, Paulson spends at least one month every year traveling through a Spanish-speaking country. His favorite so far is Guatemala, which he describes as “paradise, but with problems.” Next on his list is a trip to Argentina.

Dr. Dave Speaks Many Languages