Paul "Kippy" Waters, Jr.

Obituary For Paul "Kippy" Waters, Jr.

Paul Eugene Waters, Jr., known to his family and friends as Kippy, had the temperament of a man perpetually on the move. He was born in Harrisburg, PA to Paul Eugene Waters, Sr., Esq. and Sylvia Byers Waters. Harrisburg and Carlisle shaped him early on, and no matter how far his work, travels, and family later carried him, he never lost his strong sense of home.

Paul attended Lincoln University and Temple University. In 1978, he was initiated into the Beta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., at Lincoln University, an affiliation that remained an important part of his life.

Over the years, Paul’s life came to include Philadelphia, New York, and Washington DC, as well as the many places in between. He made countless trips to visit family, drive his children to and from college, meet them at train stations and airports, and pursue the work and relationships that filled his life.

The roads themselves became familiar. Eventually, the children he had driven along them began making those journeys on their own, to their own homes, to one another and back to him. He had shown them the way.

Paul entered the media business in the 1980s, when cable television was transforming how Americans watched television and how advertisers reached them. He became a vice president at the Food Network and later worked on multicultural television ventures, advising clients on the development and launch of multimedia networks. He eventually left the conventional executive track to become president of a farm and poultry-processing business, an undertaking rooted in his belief that ownership could provide a path to economic independence and that the benefits of that independence could extend across generations. The plant ultimately closed, but the ideas that had led him there remained important to him. Fairness and equity were principles he carried into his professional life as well as his relationships with others.

Paul was a confidant to many. He wanted to know your story, every piece of it. He stayed in touch. He gave advice, including the hard truth when he believed it was needed. He listened closely and remembered what people told him.

He also had a gift for making an unfamiliar place feel familiar. A restaurant in another country, a local gym, a grocery store or a conversation that began as small talk could become an introduction to someone new. He never met a stranger for long.

He was an observer, too. When a clever commercial sparked a creative idea, he would write it down. He loved people-watching at a café in Paris or his local Starbucks in Rahway, where a newspaper might give way to a magazine and then to whatever else had caught his attention. He regularly earmarked articles that reminded him of someone so that he could share them later.

Food was one of the ways Paul made those connections tangible. He had a favorite meal for nearly every major city and occasion. Before a Broadway show, there was Carmine’s. Between Baltimore and Washington, whether he was visiting his children or heading to work, there were Chipparelli’s, peanuts and Berger cookies, always in that order.

In Harrisburg, Broad Street Market was a marker that he was back home, while in Maui, one of his favorites was poke from the supermarket. He loved finding the places and dishes that made a city special, and then sharing them with the people he loved.

He was also an accomplished cook, and wherever he traveled, he looked for the freshest marketplace he could find. None, in his estimation, compared with the Italian Market in Philadelphia, but that did not stop him from bringing ideas home and recreating his favorite dishes. To know Paul was to know his banana bread, especially the crunchy bits of sugar on top. He was often in the kitchen, thinking about the next meal and finding pleasure in preparing something that would make the people around him happy.

His children remember that some of his most lasting lessons happened in motion: on car rides, in restaurants, at airports and over the telephone. A drive from Pennsylvania to Washington could become a lesson in politics, with Paul Simon playing on the stereo. A weekend in New York meant Broadway, instructions on navigating Manhattan without a map and a carefully considered plan for where to eat. A beach chair in St. Martin could become a business seminar conducted between gospel songs.

Paul taught his loved ones how to walk into rooms that had not been built with them in mind. He lived on a grand scale and loved on one, too.

With his grandchildren, Paul found new ways to make familiar things feel special. There were pancake brunches at the St. Regis, where he frequently stayed when he visited, and the books he had once read to his own children that he now read to their children. His three granddaughters were among the people he adored, and in them he seemed to find another generation with whom to share the things he had always loved.

For Paul, family was not something separate from the rest of his life. It was woven through the places he went, the meals he prepared, the articles he saved, the advice he gave and the long drives that connected one part of his life to another.

Paul was preceded in death by his father, Paul Eugene Waters, Sr., Esq. He is survived by his wife, Sumita Banerjee; his mother, Sylvia Byers Waters; his sister, Joy Waters Fleming, Esq., and her husband, Wayne; his brother, Mark Waters, and his wife, Shazia; Sonja Powell Waters, and their children: Paul Waters III, Esq.; Meredith Waters Barnes and her husband, Christian Barnes; and Sara Waters and her husband, Nour Almasri; and three granddaughters. He also leaves a large extended family and many friends.

Paul died on Aug. 31, 2026, at 66, from complications of Lewy body dementia.

The future did not unfold precisely as he imagined it. But he had spent a lifetime preparing the people he loved to find their way.

His life will be celebrated at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 12, 2026 in the Sanctuary of Capital Presbyterian Church, 1401 Cumberland St. Harrisburg, PA.

Send flowers to the service of Paul "Kippy" Waters, Jr.