Warren J. Paradise, longtime resident of Southborough, died peacefully in the care of Beaumont at Westborough’s compassionate staff and his loving family.
Born and raised in Dorchester (OFD) and later Dedham (considered country living back then), Warren lived his best life with friends and family in the home he built in Southborough from 1964 to 2023. He spent his final year+ in The Willows community in Westborough.
Born March 26,1930, Warren enjoyed his younger days skating on the Charles River, playing stickball, and causing mischief on the streets in and around Boston.
A bit of a local hockey legend with Boston Trade High School (nicknamed The Mighty Mite by local reporters), and the Junior Olympics, Warren later enlisted with the Marines, training on Parris Island and serving during the Korean Conflict.
On a memorable night at Wally’s Dance Club in Miami with his fellow servicemen, he met the love of his life, Eleanor (Werling), whom he married on a rainy day in September 1956. His days were quite bright from there on out.
A graduate of Northeastern University, Warren spent his early career as an electrical engineer at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Waltham. Warren then followed his entrepreneurial calling, founding Sport-tronics, a sports training and communications system, and precursor to the headset systems used by professional NFL coaches today.
Along the way, Warren and Ellie raised two wonderful children, Karen (D’Ortenzio) and Glenn. Moving the family from their first house in Natick to the home he helped design and build in Southborough (perhaps you’ve been to a party there), Warren was an integral figure in the community, helping to turn Southborough into a hockey town as coach and administrator of Southborough Youth Hockey, and later as a coach for Algonquin Regional High School.
What Warren is best remembered as professionally is Warren the Skate Guy. In 1978, he opened The Hockey Hut, a full service hockey shop where he gained a very loyal and far-reaching following for his skate sharpening skills, hockey knowledge, and perhaps most markedly, his acerbic wit. Also during this era, Warren founded and ran Skating Dynamics, an ahead-of-its-time power skating clinic that produced many of the area’s top hockey players, some of which went on to have very successful careers in the NHL.
He enjoyed many years as a boater, water skier, snow skier/boarder, sky diver (for his 60th birthday, amassing 7 jumps) and hockey player, performing with the verve of a teenager, well into his 70’s.
Universally known as a genuine, funny, caring, talented, and unique guy, he thoroughly enjoyed sharing his time and humor with friends, family, and unsuspecting strangers wherever he was – at home, at family gatherings, on the lakes of NH, on the slopes of New England and out west, and most recently rolling and roaming the halls of The Willows.
The baby of his family, Warren was predeceased by his brothers Perry and George, and sister Bea. He leaves behind his loving wife of 68 years, Ellie; Daughter Karen and son-in-law Michael D’Ortenzio, and their children Michael Jr. and Tori; Son Glenn and daughter in-law Cara (Dickinson), and their children Lina and Willow.
Warren donated his body to Harvard’s Anatomical Gift Program, where, even in death, he will continue to help others.
(Photo and Obituary via Morris-Johnston Funeral Home )
