Died August 5, 1995
College: Davenport
Widow: Mrs. Sigrid Festersen
1334 N 97th Court
Omaha, NE 68114-2177
402-343-1248
festersens@aol.com
Children: Anneliese, 1967; Peter, 1970; Else, 1974
We thought it might be best to use Paul’s own inimitable voice to tell about his life. Here is an excerpt from a piece that he wrote for a Harvard Law School reunion, just a few years before he died.
“Paul perceives himself as your friendly neighborhood business doctor, specializing in workouts, bankruptcy, and reorganization. The ultimate boutique, Paul F. Festersen, P.C. consists of one lawyer who remains deliriously happy with his nearly 10 year old decision to navigate the bramble patch of practice without company. He has now and then published and been permitted to inflict his views on those attending soirees hosted by the likes of the Practising Law Institute and the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. The firm is notable for the efficiency with which it conducts its internal affairs and has never come to the attention of those busybodies at The American Lawyer.
In his incipient dotage Paul continues to race little sailboats of the Snipe Class (which he served as International Commodore in 1981); occasionally to escape for a bareboat charter in the Caribbean; to dabble at curling (a kind of shuffleboard on ice for those unfamiliar with this ancient sport); major recent folly was the founding of the Street Railway Company Jazz Band, an unaccredited division of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Company, which is devoted to the preservation and performance of New Orleans style jazz. He grows food out back and has been known to lie down with dogs – specifically, Commodore the Beagle.”
Paul’s surviving family includes his wife Sigrid of Omaha NE and his three children, Anneliese (Yale ’89), Pete (Connecticut College ’93) and Else (Yale ’96). He also has 5 grandchildren, though they were born after he died. He led his band on tours of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Spain, and the band remains active to this day. After his death, the family established a Paul F. Festersen scholarship at Yale which is awarded annually to an undergraduate who made outstanding contributions to the Yale Bands.
by Sigrid Festersen