Ronald (Ronnie) DiVittorio

After Hopedale High School I attended the Draper Corporation Apprentice School for wood pattern making. I joined the US Air Force in March 1953 and served in Japan as a flight mechanic. I also played baseball for the Air Force with the Tachi Red Devils, winning the Far East Championship in 1955-1956. After returning to the United States I played in the Worldwide Championship. I was discharged in 1957, married Mary in 1959, and owned the Spa in Hopedale, selling it before Draper Corporation went out of business. I then went to work as a correction officer at the Lancaster School for Girls, and after that I did charter fishing out of Well fleet and Rock Harbor, Massachusetts.

We moved to Colorado in 1969, and I attended the University of Colorado Food Service Management School. That led to a quick move to Wyoming where I was manager of the Casper Junior College Food Service. I also managed the Village Inn Restaurant and the Casper Country Club and did some consulting work. We bought a hunting and fishing camp out of Cody, Wyoming, where I met and guided great people, from movie stars to priests, including pro ballplayers from the Raiders, Reds, and Mets. I fulfilled my passion for hunting and fishing with trips to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Alaska, and Mexico.

Mary and I bought an insurance company that we sold in 1993. In 1995 I retired at age sixty-two but still do some guiding because my oId clients won't let me quit. We go bird hunting in South Dakota and Wyoming, and salmon fishing in California, or anywhere the fish are biting. It's a tough life, but somebody has to do it! I also spend a great deal of time with my grandson and my daughter who, after twenty-four years of diabetes and kidney failure, received a double transplant (pancreas and kidney) and can now enjoy life.
No, I haven't killed any rats since the days at Hopedale dump.

(Ronnie died January 11, 2003 while on a hunting trip with friends)