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Paul Madison: Community Servant
By REBECCA WATTS

Paul Madison doesn’t like to talk about himself. He’d rather talk about what the City of Bryan offers for commercial developers or about the diversity and challenges in the district he represents for the Bryan City Council. As he speaks about his hometown and the people that occupy it, his face brightens, his baritone voice deepens, and it becomes clear that Councilman Madison’s interaction with people in the community is his true passion.
Paul Madison grew up on West 16th Street in Bryan as the only child of Isaac and Pauline Madison. Isaac Madison was born in 1898 in Grimes County, where he remained until he migrated to the Brazos Valley in the late 1920’s or 30‘s. To pay the bills, Isaac began making regular trips to the dump to collect scrap iron and metal he would then take to Houston for the war effort. Consistency paid off and Isaac Madison’s Junkyard became the only scrap metal business in an 80-mile radius. The business had the capability to process, ship, and recycle scrap metals, but Madison’s father lacked the education and ability to expand. “Even with limited education, I thought he was the smartest person I knew,” Madison said.
Paul’s father taught him three life lessons that he lives by: 1) Try not to burn bridges, 2) don’t put all your eggs in one basket, 3) and don’t judge a book by its cover. Madison explained it in this manner: “It sounds simple, but if you treat everyone the way you’d like to be treated and work your business in a multi-faceted manner, you will burn very few bridges.”
Dr. Wendell Davis, the former physical education teacher and football coach at Kemp High School, is one of Madison’s greatest confidants. “Paul had to have something that was forerunner for his future. He was excellent in football, basketball and baseball, though he played all of them. Back then, students had to answer to their teachers. If you weren’t at school, the teachers went and got you from your house,” Davis said. They cared deeply about their students and set an example for Madison that is visible today. Education is an integral component of Madison’s belief in community health. He fondly remembered the impact the teachers at Carver Elementary and Kemp High School had on him and he wanted that for his children too.
Madison graduated from Kemp High School in the top 25% of his class a year after Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His grades earned him a spot as one of the first African-Americans to attend Texas A&M University. Madison moved on to graduate from Prairie View A&M University with a bachelor degree in general business and then relocated to Houston with his wife, Melba.
Madison began work with Crown Petroleum, but took a position with Travelers Insurance as a compensation specialist where he received his first taste in educating the community about their rights. While working with Travelers, Madison began working on a MBA and graduated in 1974. However, life in Houston with three children began to wear on the family.
“We were living in an apartment; it was a far cry from living in Bryan, a little more fast-paced than Bryan. It was difficult to really have a family life. When I got off work on Friday, we’d head to Bryan so that we could spend time with family. Family has always been important to me, being around family and doing things with family.”
Madison was used to constant activity. He never played ball in the street or plunged in and out of neighbor’s homes as a boy. Madison’s father operated on the idea that any free time should be spent working. Saturdays and holidays were spent at the junkyard doing work that Madison described as not easy. But it did prepare him to eventually take over his father‘s business.
The family moved back to Bryan and after working several jobs in the area, Madison formally took over his father’s business after his death in 1982. Madison never wanted to work in the junkyard, but in hindsight said he wishes he had stayed around to learn more about it. He expanded the operation to deal with large commercial businesses and began shipping and receiving in bulk. But the biggest change was meeting the newly imposed government regulations. Today Madison’s daughter Patrice takes care of paperwork for the regulations while his son Prentiss runs the operation.
Madison currently serves on the Bryan City Council as representative for Single-Member District 2 for the City of Bryan. It is the largest and most diverse sampling of the Bryan population. He has served on the Bryan Planning and Zoning Commission, Bryan Parks and Recreation Department, Bryan Forward Committee, Brazos Council of Governments, City of Bryan/Bryan School District Joint Committee, the Intergovernmental Committee, and the Community Relations Steering Committee. He has served the City of Bryan in a governmental capacity for over 35 years. He works with the North Bryan Lions Club, Carver-Kemp Neighborhood Association, and Boys and Girls Club of the Brazos Valley. Madison has six children ranging in age from 28 to 40 with a combined number of 14 grandchildren between them.
Last January, Madison said his eyes began to feel scratchy. He also began to experience a deafening pain in his ears. He was referred to a specialist at the Methodist Hospital in Houston after a glomus tumor was discovered in his head. Glomus tumors can be removed before any damage is done if the tumor is caught at an early stage, but Madison’s tumor caused his optic nerves to no longer send or receive messages. Several small surgeries and two serious surgeries were performed to remove the tumor, but Madison remained blind. In spite of this late onset of blindness, Madison is more determined than ever to work with the community. He said about his condition, “I think all the positives outweigh the negatives. I think of it as an enhancement.”