Selwyn Raiders Death, Obituary – Selwyn was born in Antwerp, Belgium. In 1938, Paul and his parents fled the unrest that was rife in Europe and boarded the Normandie for the journey to the United States. They eventually made their home in Beverly Hills. He started his education at El Rodeo Elementary School and continued his education at Beverly Hills High School, where he graduated in 1951. Later that year, he enrolled at UCLA to pursue his undergraduate degree, and while there, he competed on the varsity tennis and cricket teams for his alma mater, the Bruins.
In 1959, Paul met the woman he would spend the rest of his life with on a blind date with Joan Gordon. Their wedding took place only three months after they first met, but it marked the beginning of a love affair that would last for more than 62 years. Paul and Joan continued to travel the world together for both business and pleasure, in search of unique experiences in off-the-beaten-path locations and faraway, exotic lands. Paul indulged in his hobbies of choice, golf and tennis, when he was at home.
He had been a member of the Beverly Hills Tennis Club for many years and had served as President there. In addition to that, he enjoyed taking photographs as a hobby and restoring British sports cars. Joan and Paul moved to Santa Barbara in the 1990s so that they could be nearer to their daughter Laura and their grandson Spenser. They stayed there for a full decade. Paul served as a Trustee of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and as the Founding President of MOXI, which is the Santa Barbara Children’s Museum, during his time in Santa Barbara.
The region of Southern California that Paul influenced is not immune to his impact. He was a co-founder of the first Los Angeles Children’s Museum and served on the Beverly Hills Architectural Commission for four years and the Beverly Hills Planning Commission for eight years. In addition, he was a co-founder of the original Los Angeles Children’s Museum. The role he played as Founding President of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills was the thing he was most pleased with in his career.
The Beverly Hills Cultural Center Foundation was established by him in 1994, which marked the beginning of his work. The foundation collaborated with Mayor Vicki Reynolds and other civic leaders such as Ron Rosen, Jerry Magnin, and Bram Goldsmith in order to assist the city in acquiring the vacated historic Post Office Building that is adjacent to City Hall.