Paul Andrew Asmuth

Paul Andrew Asmuth grew up in Fort Myers, Florida. He graduated from Fort Myers High School and attended Auburn University for one year. He subsequently graduated from Arizona State University in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. At Arizona State he was a three-time NCAA All-American swimmer and team cocaptain (1978–1980). After the 1980 Olympic boycott, he entered the sport of professional marathon swimming.

During the 1980s, Paul dominated professional marathon swimming races. He won seven World Professional Marathon Federation titles (1980–1985, 1988). During this time he competed in 59 races, winning 31 of them, including a record 8 times in the Atlantic City Around the Island Swim (23 miles); a record 6 times in La Traversee Internationale du Lac Memphremagog (26 miles), holding the record from 1980–1994; 4 times in Les Quatorze Milles de Paspebiac (16 miles), holding the record of 5 hours and 35 minutes; 3 times in the Capri to Naples marathon (20 miles) and held the record of 6 hours and 35 minutes from 1982–2012; and 3 times in La Traversee Internationale du Lac St. Jean (21 and 40 miles) and holds the 40-mile record of 17 hours and 6 minutes. In 1990, he was named the Athlete of the Decade by The Press of Atlantic City.

He also completed 3 English Channel crossings (21 miles), setting the men’s world record of 8 hours and 12 minutes in 1985; became the first person to cross Nantucket Sound from Nantucket Island to Craigville Beach, Cape Cod (24 miles) in 1986, 12 hours and 1 minute; and in 1983 was the first person to swim under 7 hours around Manhattan Island (28 miles), 6 hours and 49 minutes.

To bring the sport to life for his wife Marilyn, daughter Kendall, and son Logan, Paul competed again in races in Lac Memphremagog and Atlantic City in 1998, Capri to Naples in 2003, and Lac St. Jean in 2004 (the fiftieth anniversary of the event).

Paul was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 1982 and the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2010.

Paul worked as a public accountant from 1980 to 1997 and was a California certified public accountant during this time. In 1993, he earned a Master of Science degree in taxation from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, California. Over his last ten years in the profession, he worked with Pisenti & Brinker LLP; he was a partner with the firm and in charge of the Napa, California, office.

From 2006 to 2012, he advised the USA Swimming open water national team and coached at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics, six world championships, and multiple other events around the globe.

He is currently the General Manager of The Napa Valley Reserve winery in St. Helena, California, where he has worked since July 2000, and also serves on the executive committee of Meadowood Napa Valley, an adjoining Relais & Chateaux and triple Five-Star Forbes resort.

Since 2017, Paul has served on the vestry committee of Grace Episcopal Church where he worships. He also joined the board of directors of the Land Trust of Napa County during this year.

After seeing his first coast redwood tree in 1976, Paul developed a passion for these amazing and unique trees. He founded and manages an 800-tree coast redwood carbon-sequestration forest in St. Helena. This experimental planting is being irrigated with effluent from a nearby wastewater treatment plant.

He lives in St. Helena with his wife Marilyn. They met at Grace Episcopal Church and were married there in 1999.