Stephen Paul

Stephen Paul grew up traipsing around the Sonoran Desert. After a degree in Education and creating an environmental education program and teaching for eight years at a private school, he attended two years of architecture school and restored multiple adobe homes in Tucson’s Barrio Viejo. He founded and ran Arroyo Design for 30 years with his wife Elaine. Arroyo Design was a nationally recognized and much-published furniture design and manufacturing company that specialized in the visually beautiful but challenging mesquite wood native to Paul’s Sonoran Desert. Among all the wonderful people he met through Arroyo Design, he also made furniture for Paul and Linda McCartney, Larry McMurtry, Gene Hackman, Linda Ronstadt, the Dalai Lama and other celebrities. In 2011 he and his daughter Amanda founded Hamilton Distillers, makers of Whiskey Del Bac, based on the premise of making a truly Southwestern American Single-Malt Whiskey using a mesquite fire to dry malt instead of a peat fire. Together, they were 2020 James Beard Semi-finalist nominees. With longtime ties to his hometown of Tucson, Mr. Paul has sat on multiple municipal commissions and non-profit boards. He has recently stepped aside as Manager of Hamilton Distillers, in favor of bringing in CEO Kent Cheeseman to run the company. As President of the Hamilton Distillers Board of Directors, he remains heavily involved in the day-to-day operations of the distillery.