Paul Louis Taylor, directed programs for CBS news; 66
WASHINGTON - Paul Louis Taylor, a director of CBS news programs, including "Face the Nation," died of cardiac arrest Jan. 31 at Holy Cross Hospital in suburban Silver Spring, Md. He was 66.
In his 38-year career with CBS, Mr. Taylor directed a number of news programs, including "Nightwatch with Charlie Rose" and Washington news items for the CBS Evening News. One of the first African American directors at CBS, he was senior director of "Face the Nation" in the late '70s.
Mr. Taylor was born in New York's Harlem neighborhood and attended the city's public schools. A singer who taught himself to play the piano and a number of other instruments, he was proud to have been chosen to sing for famed contralto Marian Anderson when she visited his school. He had a fine tenor voice.
He served in the Army from 1959 to 1962, stationed for most of that time in Bussac-Foret in France. A Francophile, he studied at the Sorbonne.
He joined CBS after he was discharged from the Army, working briefly in New York before being transferred to the network's Washington bureau. He perfected his craft at a time when television news programs were making the changeover from film to videotape. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of the District of Columbia in 1981.
Mr. Taylor, known as "PT," had a penchant for bestowing nicknames on his colleagues.
"He was just a real character," said Arlene Dillon, a former associate director who worked with Mr. Taylor for 25 years. She recalled how he would work 12- to 15-hour days at CBS and then hustle over to a Washington bar or a suburban restaurant called the Black Orchid and play jazz into the early hours of the morning.
He retired in 1999 and pursued his interests in music, painting, photography, gardening, and cooking. 