Tonya Paul’s photography, teaching, generosity earn hall honor

OROVILLE — With a career in photography that spans more than three decades and ranges from portrait photography to photojournalism to teaching others her art, Oroville native Tonya Paul is being honored as an Oroville Union High School District Hall of Fame 2024 inductee.

During high school, the 1987 Las Plumas High School grad was on the Honor Roll, participated in golf and softball, was a Block LP member, cheerleader and wrestling statistician. She was also active in Associated Student Body activities including serving as class secretary for three years and on the Spirit Week committee for four years.

After graduation she attended Butte College and worked fulltime for Photomagic One Hour Photo in Oroville.

Tonya Paul. (Contributed by Oroville Union High School District)

“Tonya Paul is one of the most extraordinary self-made humans I have ever met or had the opportunity to work with,” wrote Shirlee Burch-Stevens, who owned Photomagic and was Paul’s mentor. “She is a wonderful example of how to overcome extreme adversity from an incredibly young age, not let it define you, and then go on to make your life’s work (your true north), helping others in a field you love. She is deserving of any accolades we can bestow.”

In 1991 after leaving Photomagic, Paul opened Tonya Paul Photography, a business she continues to operate today, and was hired by the Oroville Mercury-Register as a photojournalist where she received the newspaper’s publisher’s Donrey Media Photographer Award.

In 2006 Paul left the newspaper and took a position with the Butte County Office of Education as a CTE Digital Photography teacher, a position she continues to hold today. In addition to teaching classes at Oroville High, she was the cheerleading adviser as well as the 2012 and 2019 class adviser. In 2014 she was awarded BCOE Teacher of the Year.

Paul served as the Resilience, Education, Adventure, Community and Health program advisor at Oroville High School from 2014 to 2016 and was honored with the REACH Adviser of the Year award in 2014. In 2016 she was transferred to Hearthstone School and has been the prom adviser and continues to donate portrait photography and silent auction items to the school.

Paul has been generous in her support of her hometown planning of both LPHS and LPHS/OHS class reunions since 1997; donating portraits for students, school athletic teams, the SPCA, and other organizations; and she has supported the local Fraternal Order of Eagles.