Name: Paul David Lira
Born and Raised: Born in Covington, Kentucky. Although I lived in Kentucky, my parents saw fit to send me to Summit Country Day School, Cincinnati, OH Montessori, K – 12 grade. This is a Catholic private school founded by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1890. I attended undergraduate school at Catholic Thomas More College earning a BA Biology. Graduate studies followed at Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, PA with a Masters in Clinical Immunology and Pathology.
Married to: Maruja Elma Lira. Maruja and I met each other at a Filipino party in Cincinnati held by the Filipino Americans of Southern Ohio (FASO).
For how long: We married on September 1, 1991, 32 years ago.
Children: Anthony Lira (31) married to Kelly Inciong Lira (30) with a grandchild Noelle Lira (1). Anthony is a Bioengineer (Staff Process Engineer) at Siemens Healthcare and Kelly is a Senior Program Manager at Amazon (Prime Video). Jacob Lira (26) is SCS Operations Coordinator at Wesco and Jonas Lira (26) is a Lead Technical Manager at Lytx Corp.
Occupation: Retired. I had a long and exciting career as a pharmaceutical research scientist developing drugs from the stage of conceptual design to testing patient samples that have been treated with our drugs. I have worked on many drug designs spanning diseases in oncology, inflammation, and hematology. My experience includes immunochemistry, in vivo modeling, DNA/RNA sequencing, and bioinformatics to understand how cancer escapes from drug treatment. I’ve partaken in many drugs to market for indications like preventing organ transplant rejection, arthritis, non-small cell lung cancer, AML, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and others.
Major Jobs: EPA (Cincinnati, OH) was a Summer intern position that gave my resume a lift while an undergraduate. It soon led to a miraculous over the phone hiring as an Electron Microscopist in the Philadelphia, PA area before I matriculated at Hahnemann Medical College. Immediately after graduation, I was employed by E. I. DuPont de Nemours to make antibody reagents for their immunoassay machine and then arthritis research. Once my wife graduated from University of Cincinnati, we looked for a company that would hire us both. And then.. another miraculous event happened. My wife sent my resume to Pfizer Global Research and Development in Groton, Connecticut and I was hired. Months later, I was able to get her a position there too. We got each other our jobs! I had 33 years at Pfizer and Maruja is working on 34 – soon to retire.
Why you decided to join the Knights? This is something that I have procrastinated over and over for many years before living in California. I always had an excuse for being busy with things like my full time science job, running a small business, coaching my kids lacrosse and soccer teams, and have hobby time. Well, my kids grew up, I was set to retire soon, and my wife was nudging me, there I saw WPGK Alberto Aldrete reaching out for new members at the pulpit and of course, the TENT. You walked by it going into the church AND you walked by it going out! It was in my face. Put out or ship out. There it was with no more excuses. I needed to fulfill the beatitudes and give thanks to God for the countless blessings in my life.
What has kept you in the Knights? I feel like I’m a seasoned new comer with a little over two years here. God must have spoke to WB Sean McCormack to nominate me as Recorder because he never talked to me about it. I was apprehensive at first. I didn’t know anything about how the business worked or even the names of people and I’m suppose to record this? I accepted. I prayed to God and asked the Holy Spirit to help me succeed for the good of this Council and the people we help. Now that I’ve participated in many activities throughout the Columbian year, the thought of leaving never occurred to me. Now I understand the business, the Mission, and have met many Worthy Brothers who love God as I do. As the Recorder I hope to capture the essence of our discussions to better execute our plans and hopefully engage everyone present and not. I feel needed and it drives me. Outside of being the Recorder, I like seeing the results of our actions. Whether it is the numerous thank you cards, successful graduating Catholic students, Life Choices receiving a $10,000 check, or the happy recipients of Helping Hands food. I feel the joy in giving. Lastly, I enjoy Jim McBride’s Reflections of the Sword. He talks about everyday topics and how it relates to our theological virtues.
What is the one thing that your friends probably don’t know about you? Cooking is like chemistry to me and if you mix OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) with cooking, it can sometimes drive your family or friends crazy. I’ve been forever trying to make and perfect a Steamed Filipino Rice Cake. It is suppose to rise and set like a cake. Mine rises and falls when it cools. The problems comes when they have to eat all my bad mistakes and pretend it’s good! They told me it was time to stop and just buy it! Of course, it’s not the same thing.
Favorite Hobby: My favorite hobby is to have hobbies. I cycle through all my hobbies through the course of the year depending on the seasons, my amusement, and edification. I go fishing, hunting, smoke bbq and make sausages, play guitar, go off-roading, travel, make home videos, brew beer, and RC trucks. I have a hyperactive mind with an insatiable curiosity to learn and play.
If you got to start over again after graduating from school, what would you change? This is a question that gets asked many times throughout life and my answers undoubtedly change. For better or worse past times, I’ve come to realize that the beginning and middle of the story is a means to create the ending of your choice. I dwell on this when we hear the Gospel of Jesus telling the parable of Talents (Matthew 25:14–30). I ask if I’m happy with myself and if not, what gift did God give me so I can turn things around and make it through hard times. So, no, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Do you travel much? Yes! My wife and I love to travel. Maruja loves to do the credit card travel points programs to fund our excursions. We have our checklist for adventure and spiritual destinations. We recently came back from a Japan, Maldives, and Turkey vacation. We are now planning for next years trip to see Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and possibly Switzerland. Some completed travel destinations include the Vatican, Jerusalem, and Akita. My favorite was Our Lady of Lourdes, where I was humbled as I bathed naked and prayed for Mary’s blessings.
How long have you been a Parishioner of St. Gabriel’s? My family relocated from Connecticut to Ramona in 2007. Because we are in the Mt Woodson development, we went to either Immaculate Heart of Mary in Ramona, St. Gabriel’s in Poway, or St Gregory the Great in Scripps. I think in 2010 we finally officially signed into St Gabriel. We felt more at home here with a humble church and a big heart. The location was better for us too.
Extra: I sought to improve the note taking system to engage all members present at the monthly meetings and not to accomplish our mission. I used Microsoft OneNote in past corporate life to take notes, share documents, and ensure accountability to action items. It is free! The new system provides us with 1) Automatic Archival, 2) Random access searching of archives, 3) Mobility access via laptop, iPad, and Cell Phones, 4) Additional posting of photos, images, documents, and 5) Live editing while sharing documents. All these features are fully functional. I’d like to highlight #3, when WB Sandy Komula graciously covered for me, he used his iPad to generate the report. I proofed the report, made edits, and posted the draft PDF to him in the Amingiri, Maldives and finalized the report in Instanbul, Turkey!