2010 Persons of the Year

Paul and Phyllis Fireman

Paul and Phyllis Fireman are the Brockton Housing Authority's Persons of the Year for 2010 because of their work to provide affordable housing solutions and to end family homelessness in Massachusetts.

A native of Brockton's West Side, Paul is the founder of Reebok International. He and his wife Phyllis established the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation in 2002 to take action and achieve tangible results. Over the course of eight years, many affordable homes across the state have been built or rehabilitated and occupied by deserving families thanks to funding provided in part or whole by their foundation. In 2009 alone, the foundation gave approximately $9.6 million.

Paul and Phyllis bring together a potent mix of "head and heart," combining leadership and business acumen with compassion and concern for human rights. Together, they are great allies for likeminded organizations such as ours. Their support has had great impact. It has helped improve quality of life across Massachusetts and has helped us within our own area of responsibility, Brockton. For this we salute and honor the two humanitarians and their work with our Persons of the Year Award.