People
Residents
Paul Hom - Caterer, Merchant, Importer, and Industrial Designer
10419 Brighton Road and 5 Oakshore Green
Paul Hom owned the first exclusive dinner theater service for the Palace and the State theaters during the 1970s. Shows he catered included "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" and "Alice at the Palace." He catered for a number of celebrities, including Englebert Humperdinck, Tom Jones, Marvin Hamlisch, and Liza Minnelli.
He was a caterer for Belkin Productions and the World Series of Rock, feeding the biggest stars, such as the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, the Eagles, and Billy Joel. Others for whom he catered included Art Modell, George Forbes, Sam Miller, and Senator George Voinovich.
Hom catered occasions such as weddings, graduations, and bar mitzvahs. He was a winner at the fifth annual Cleveland Rib Burn Off in 1977, an annual event held on the mall in downtown Cleveland where local chefs competed for the honor of having their barbecue named the best in Cleveland.
In addition to being a caterer, he was a manufacturer, merchant, importer, industrial designer, and architect. He owned two import specialty stores, both called Phil-American Co. He was also the owner of two Almond Cookie restaurants in the Keith Building and University Circle.
Paul Lee Hom was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, one of seven children and a second-generation Chinese American. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art with a major in industrial design. Following college, Paul served in the U. S. Army during World War II in Greenland. After the war, Paul married Nenita Hom, and they had two daughters: Linda (Robinson) and Anita (Corbet). Both daughters attended the Bratenahl School.
Nenita Hom was born on January 28, 1928, in Alaminos, Pangasinan, Philippines. She attended college in the Philippines, earned a bachelor of arts degree at Cleveland College, and a master's degree at Case Western University. Nenita was the service coordinator-supervisor for the Mental Retardation Information and Referral Service. Previously she worked for the Florence Crittenton Home and the Phillis Wheatley Association and was a group therapist at Cleveland State Hospital.
Paul and Nenita lived in Bratenahl for forty years. Paul retired in 1986 and died on April 10, 1999, at Avon Oaks Nursing home in Avon, Ohio. Nenita died on June 18, 2011, in Miami, Florida.