Paul H O'Donoghue

He was born in Canada a child of the depression. A Dual citizen and spoke fluent French.

Loved classical music particularly Mozart and Beethoven.

When parents separated, his Dad moved to Brooklyn. He lived with his Mom and brothers and sister Clair who is with us today.

They were poor and depended upon other family members for survival. His uncle was a doctor and helped take care of them. My father never forgot.

Merchant seaman at age 16

Visited Dresden and saw the devastation of war

Joined the Us Navy in 1948

Made first class aviation Electronics technician in 4 years. A great achievement

Ran the electronics shop

Air crew in the Korean war

Won his first car from a marine in a poker game.

Marine didn’t want to pay up

Dad visited his commanding officer

Marine delivered car that day

My dad had no license but learned to drive that very day

Attended University of Vermont (didn’t particularly like it)

A friend made him aware of ad in newspaper to be an engineer without a degree to join IBM

My dad decided to tag along.

The friend didn’t get in but my dad did. Started a 40-year career. He left college and helped pioneer an industry.

Won the IBM means service award multiple time

Was honored at corporate for a programing discovery that saved the largest banks millions of dollars.

Bought a house In Brockton an unfinished cape.

Mom and he finished the upstairs themselves.

Built a huge stereo and speakers from scratch

Had the whole neighborhood over for the concert till the wee hours.

He loved having his brothers and sister visit and it was a nonstop party.

I remember them sitting in lawn chairs and shooting out the glaring porch light at 3 AM with my bb gun.

They took out a few windows too.

That’s where we lived from 1960 till we moved to Scituate in 1971.

We all made Scituate home as the sea is in our blood.

My Dad loved fishing and boats and his seaside community.

He always worked on his own car and thought it failure to pay anyone to do what he could do himself which was everything.

My parents saw the grief of losing a child to cancer at age 29. My father never stopped grieving Michael’s death.

My dad retired from IBM in 85 with a pension and benefits at 58

What a deal.

He ran his own service company after that bought a second house in Sebastian Fla and started wintering there.

In April, he would be back for the backbreaking work of preparing the codfish for launch.

Everyone was welcome on fishing trips and just to hang out at the dock.

He sailed boats from Florida to Massachusetts mostly for fun and adventure.

He scuba dived and fished as much as possible.

We teamed up and bought the spirit a 31 foot Tiera which has been a floating beach house for the last 12 years.

Gaffey Funeral Home, Scituate, MA.