PAUL CRITCHLOW
Lots of UNO students take on internships. Graduates? Not so much. But who’s ever heard of a 70 year-old graduate intern? Well, there’s Paul Critchlow. A 1971 UNO graduate, Critchlow in 2016 made news as a summer intern at the Manhattan headquarters of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer. “It was like being the new kid at school,” Critchlow says. “I was worried. It was a whole new experience.” Just another one, that is, in a long and impressive career. Critchlow had retired prior to his Pfizer stint following a long career at Merrill Lynch, where he had risen to senior vice president of communications. He was the voice of Merrill Lynch as that firm vacated its New York City offices following the 9/11 attacks. Critchlow’s résumé also includes a stint as press secretary for Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh during the nation’s worst nuclear accident, Three Mile Island. That he became an expert in crisis communications shouldn’t come as a surprise given how he entered the field. A Vietnam War veteran, Critchlow was wounded on Aug. 19, 1969, the same day Boston Globe photographer Oliver Noonan was killed while covering the war. “It intrigued me that a civilian would risk his life for his job,” Critchlow says. “I came back to UNO and switched from English to journalism.” He’s still at it today having begun a strategic consulting company following his Pfizer internship. “The whole thing re-invigorated me. It gave me a sense that I could still be relevant.”