Paul Sterian

Paul Sterian (May 1, 1904 – September 14, 1984) was a Romanian poet and civil servant.

Biography Born into a cultured family in Bucharest, his parents were physician Eraclie Sterian and his wife Alexandrina (née Gulimănescu); he was married to . From 1910 to 1917, Sterian attended the applied school of the society for the education of the Romanian people, followed by Gheorghe Lazăr High School from 1918 to 1921. From 1921 to 1924, he studied at the philosophy and law faculty of the University of Bucharest. He earned a degree magna cum laude, with a thesis on the emotions and the endocrine glands, applying a theory by Constantin Ion Parhon. Also at Bucharest, he took a doctorate in public law, his dissertation dealing with copyright. From 1926 to 1929, he studied at the University of Paris; Sterian's second doctoral thesis, in law and economics, had to do with Romania and World War I reparations. In Paris, upon the recommendation of Mircea Vulcănescu, Ilarie Voronca, and Benjamin Fondane, he worked for an insurance firm. In 1948, upon the advent of the communist regime, he became a day laborer, followed by an accountant's position in 1950. In 1951, he began inspecting credit records at Tecuci. He successively worked as an accountant in Bucharest (1953), Balotești (1954), and at the state fruit and vegetable monopoly Aprozar (1956). In 1957 and 1963, he was head of external relations for the composers' union, holding a similar position at the geriatrics institute from 1964 to 1969.