Heartfelt expressions of sadness and sympathy to BVA as an organization and to the family of Immediate Past National President Paul Mimms have poured into voicemails and email inboxes of BVA National Headquarters staff and members of the Board of Directors throughout this past week following notice of Paul’s sudden passing last Friday, August 22.

This week’s VetTech session was without the familiar voice and chuckle that all have become so accustomed to hearing on Wednesday afternoons.

The expressions and empty feelings, all evidence of how greatly Paul will be missed, come from an assortment of BVA members, sponsors and partners of the organization, and leaders of sister organizations from the veteran and blind communities.

Paul was first elected to the BVA National Board of Directors as National Treasurer at the 68th National Convention (2013) in Spokane, Washington. After serving a full two-year term, he was elected to serve as both National Secretary and National Vice President. Personal issues forced him to resign as National Vice President in 2018, but he returned to that position in 2022 by both appointment and later election. He served as National President from 2023 until the conclusion of the 80th National Convention just seven weeks ago.

A more complete tribute to Paul will be presented in the next issue of the BVA Bulletin, accessible on the Association’s website, published in print, and distributed electronically to the same audience that receives BVA Happenings.

Nevertheless, no written tribute could do justice to the life Paul Mimms lived and gave to others. He said more than once that the gifts that were untouched by his blindness—his intelligence, his family, and his faith—were his motivation to become something more than he was at the time. He viewed himself “not so much a blind veteran as he did a veteran who happened to be blind,” the disability always being secondary to what he did for family, church, community, country, and, of course, his fellow veterans.

“My mission became one of appreciating and respecting the gifts I already possessed—to look beyond blindness unless it could be used as an opportunity to help someone else, and to focus on the blessings and gifts I have to empower others just as I have been empowered in my own life,” he said in an interview for a Bulletin feature story and fundraising appeal in 2021.

Surely BVA has been among the fortunate benefactors of the light that emanated from Paul. That light came as a gift without a price tag or a bill.