Paul Fiore:
CLASS OF 1967
Lyons Township High SchoolClass of 1967
La grange, IL
Framingham State College/UniversityClass of 1994
Framingham, MA
Western Illinois UniversityClass of 1971
Macomb, IL
Cossitt Avenue Elementary SchoolClass of 1963
La grange, IL
Goodman Avenue SchoolClass of 1961
La grange, IL
Paul's Story
After graduating from LTHS, I went to the College of Dupage where I earned an Associates degree. Then I went to Western Ill University where I started as a Forestry major then switched to English when I realized that I wasn't very good at science courses. I did pretty good in some courses, and flunked others because I was more into the anti-war movement and my future wife, Toi, than my studies. Also, for part of the time, I didn't have anywhere to live and got really sick from the stress of finding a new place to stay every night. To make a long story short (which is probably too late), I flunked out in the last quarter of my senior year and didn't finish at that time. Toi and I got married in May 1971 in a local park.
After working a bunch of different jobs (cab driver, cook, guard, furrier, factory worker, electronic technician) while unsuccessfully trying to make it as a freelance writer, I finally ended up as a technical writer at Perkin-Elmer in Oakbrook, IL. In 1978, we moved to Massachusetts when I got a job offer at Raytheon and they moved us here.
After a couple of years in a rented townhouse in Westboro, MA, we bought an old house in Hudson, MA which we began fixing up. In 1981, our first daughter Erin was born. Right away, we knew she had problems (later on, she was diagnosed with Asperger's Disorder, a form of Autism). Undoubtedly, dealing with her issues has been the toughest part of my life (so far). In 1985, we moved into a new house back in Westboro where we've lived ever since. Our daughter Holly was also born in 1985.
Erin is almost 28 now and lives in Woonsocket, RI. She worked at Burger King for a few years, but is currently unemployed. She has a daughter, Dianna, who lives with her other grandparents in RI as neither Erin nor the father made reliable parents.
Holly is 23 and lives at home with us. She graduated from Dean College with an Associates degree in 2007, and is now a senior at Framingham State College majoring in English with a concentration in writing.
For just over 20 years, we have been vacationing at a house we rent for 2 weeks every August in Brewster, MA on Cape Cod. I'm still officially a technical writer, at Waters Corporation since 1992, but mostly I create online support information for the Waters website and administer a couple of servers for our department.
In the mid 80s, I decided to finish my BA degree, which I did online with Western Ill University. Luckily, I was able to get credit for...Expand for more
life experience so I didn't really have to take any classes. After that, I decided to go for my Masters degree (in Counseling Psychology), which I did at night at Framingham State College, graduating in 1994.
For fun, I'm into climbing, mountaineering, hiking, and backpacking, mostly in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, were I have climbed all of the 48 "4000-footers" (peaks 4000 feet and higher), which range from just over 4000 feet to 6,288-foot Mt Washington, the highest peak in New England and famous for its bad weather and high winds (the highest recorded wind speed was 231 mph). Unlike the mountains in the west, treeline in the New England mountains and New York's Adirondacks begins between about 4000 and 4500 feet. Climbers often train here for serious alpine climbing such as Denali (McKinley) and Everest.
Our dog, Muffin, a cockapoo, also completed the 4000-footers in 2006. In addition, in 2006, I became a volunteer trail adopter for the AMC and White Mountains National Forest. I maintain the Mt Clinton Trail in the Dry River Wilderness south of Mt Washington. I remove blowdowns (downed trees), clear brush, clear drainages, and maintain small cairns and brook crossings. I also finished a course in Wilderness First Aid in 2008 and am thinking of getting into Search and Rescue. Anyone interested in more information can look at my climbing website.
I also like to read and listen to music. Most of the books I read are either non-fiction mountaineering stories, or British and European gothic, horror, and Victorian fiction, such as Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, ETA Hoffman, Algernon Blackwood, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Maturin, Jan Potocki, Clara Reeve, MR James, and Arthur Machen.
As far as music goes, I'm definitely not typical as I mostly listen to gothic, ethereal, darkwave, industrial, neoclassical, and neomedieval music while pretty much everyone else I know (outside my family) is into oldies. I've also enjoyed classical music ever since I was a kid and used to get on other kids' nerves trying to get them to appreciate it. Some of my favorite bands include Rasputina, Faith & the Muse (and Monica Richards), Siouxsie & the Banshees, Hungry Lucy, Unwoman (Erica Mulkey), Emilie Autumn, the Mediaeval Baebes, the Cruxshadows, Loreena McKennitt, Switchblade Symphony, and a number of continental European bands like Trobar de Morte, Helium Vola, Nightwish, Dark Sanctuary, and Collection D'Arnell-Andrea.
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