Bernhard Paus as Grand Master of the Norwegian Order of Freemasons
He finished medical school in 1936 and served as an officer during the Winter War in Finland and the war in Norway in 1940. Later he served in the Korean War, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. From 1951 to 1958 he served as chief physician of the Norwegian Armed Forces, and from 1964 to 1980 he was the director of the Martina Hansen Hospital in Bærum.
He was chairman of the Norwegian Association for Military Medicine (1954–55) and President of the Nordic Orthopaedic Federation (1974–76).
His wife, Brita Collett Paus (née Collett), founded the Catholic charitable organization Fransiskushjelpen in Norway. She was the daughter of Axel Collett, a co-owner of the Firma Albert Collett company, one of the largest land-owners in Norway. They had six children, including politician Lucie Paus Falck, surgeon Albert Collett Paus and businessman and investor Nikolai Bent Paus. He died in Agadir, Morocco.
His brother, lawyer and businessman Vilhelm Christian Paus (born 1915), was married to his wife's sister, Anne Collett (born 1918).