"Paul was very passionate about certain political issues. And he could be very persuasive," says H. Clark Mason '75-'76, who is also a Crimson editor and now a staff writer for the Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat, who lived with Demakis sophomore year.

At Harvard, Demakis worked on the Harvard Political Review and usually took one or two IOP seminars each semester. His work with the government department focused on local political issues.

One tutorial project took Demakis to Lynn, where he went door to door gauging political beliefs of city residents.

But even with his lifelong interest in the field, it took Demakis 20 years to make his entrance into the political arena. After his undergraduate years, he earned a degree from Harvard Law School and worked at two Boston law firms.

When he was appointed a hearing officer for the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board, Demakis moved closer to the political scene. At the same time, he began to work actively in the community, chairing the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay as well as the Ward Five Democratic Committee.

But Demakis says he thought then that he would always remain a background player in Massachusetts politics.

"By the time I was a hearing officer [on the tax board], I assumed that I would probably never aim for an elected office," Demakis says.