Paul Karch

Name: Paul Karch
Birth Name: Paul Richard Karch
Hometown: Portland, Oregon, USA
Birthplace: Oregon, USA
Died: 1990-05-29 (Age:75)
Height: 182cm
Pro Boxer: Record

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Family legend has it that Paul Karch came from a line of Polish immigrants who lived in Portland with his brothers and one sister Mary and their father who was a trolley driver. The story goes that Karch's older brother, Ben, got into a scrap with a neighborhood bully. When the fight started to go bad for Ben, he told his opponent: "If I lose, my brother Paul will certainly come to my rescue and whip you." The bully then demanded that Paul be brought forth since there would be greater glory in beating as many Karch's as possible. Paul was summoned, and the street match began, with cheering by on-lookers. The two young men fought along the streets of Portland for about six blocks when Karch landed a lucky punch to the head of his opponent. The bully stumbled backward and fell into a plate glass window of a store. Paul was heralded as a local champ and "protector of the innocent."

With this new-found inspiration, Karch decided to join the boxing circuit traveling up and down the West Coast until the middle of World War II--when he met his soon-to-be wife, Marion Pichotto, while working in the Moore Dry Dock ship yard of Oakland. She was concerned about Paul's health as a boxer and gave him an ultimatum, boxing or her.