PROFILES IN BUSINESS: Joe Famolare and the Foreign Trade Zone

Vermont Business Magazine, Feb 01, 2004 by Marcel, Joyce

CHILDHOOD PRESSURES

Famolare is one of five children born to a Pennsylvania Dutch mother and a thirdgeneration Sicilian-American father. The Italian side of his family came to America in the 1860s, when Giuseppe Garibaldi was unifying Italy

"Garibaldi financed this war with money from Brazil, which had a lot of Italian families, and Massachusetts, which had them, too," Famolare said. "He would send his emissaries to collect money and buy arms. And where would they buy arms? The Springfield (Mass) Rifle Company. So my great-grandfather, whom I never knew, was a corporal for Garibaldi, and he came here and bought the rifles from Springfield. I still have one at home. And he went back to Italy with the arms. Then Garibaldi sent him a second time and he never went back. That's how we got here."

One of Famolare's Chestnut Hill playmates was the future governor of Massachusetts and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. Others were Leonard Bernstein's brother, and boxer Paul Pender, the World Middleweight Champion in the early 1960s.

"There was a mixture of Greek, Jewish guys, Chinese, Italian - all nouveau successful guys," Famolare said. "It was murder. We were never good enough. They all had made it, and now, all of a sudden, they're looking at us to see what we're going to do to even match them. So the pressure - it was terrible. We all had to be big successes."

According to Russo, who made his fortune with a large beauty parlor and real estate and is spending his retirement studying at Brandeis University, he and Famolare were always getting into trouble.

"My father said I would have to marry the teacher to get out of school, and Joe too," Russo said. "But Joe had a tremendous imagination. If anything went wrong, it was usually Joe Famolare and me. We weren't always guilty, but we always looked guilty."

Like most young boys, Famolare had a paper route and shoveled driveways to earn extra money. But when he was 12, his father put him to work punching a clock. He even made him register for Social Security.

"My father was very law-abiding," Famolare said. "In those days, people were so law-abiding, it was really wonderful. I probably got $5 a week and they took a dollar away for Social Security, which really, upset me. I used to say, 'Why do I do this?' My father said, 'Look, someday, Joe, the money's going away and you'll so happy you'll receive Social Security.' When I got old enough, I told the lady at the Social Security office that I didn't want it and she said. 'You have to take it.' So I get Social Security, for God's sake. The lady, told me, 'By the way, we never had anybody go back so far. Once you're 19 or 20, we've got you - but before, it's a mess.' I said, 'Don't worry I wasn't paid that much money before'."

COLLEGE REVOLUTIONARY

Famolare went to Middlebury College for a year, then switched to Emerson College, the theater and broadcasting school in Boston. Already a performer, he was singing in nightclubs and bars.

"I wanted to be a singer because I did