Gardner football family loses a generous giant in Dr. Paul Harasimowicz

Back in the mid-1950s, Paul Harasimowicz had a decision to make.

Would he pursue a career that would have him filling cavities for a living, or one that would have his bone-crunching tackles knocking those fillings loose in the NFL?

For generations of Gardner residents, his decision to return to his hometown to set up a very successful dental practice was a tremendous decision. And the gentle giant whose deft touch with the dental instruments greatly enhanced the smiles of several thousands of his patients.

Dr. Paul P. Harasimowicz Jr., 85, died earlier this week after a lengthy battle with vascular dementia.

Local folks will treasure the memory of a dedicated medical professional, a tremendous family man and a local football legend who was a decorated hall of famer at his high school and college alma maters.

Born and raised in Gardner, Harasimowicz was a 1953 Gardner High graduate who competed on the football, basketball and track teams. It was just the start of a sporting legacy for his surname that would be extended through his sons, daughter, and grandsons over the next 60 years.

After high school, he applied to his father’s alma mater, the University of Vermont, and majored in science and zoology. While his father, the late Dr. Paul Harasimowicz Sr. was a general practitioner, Paul Jr. also hoped to one day to pursue a medical profession.

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Although football became his forte at UVM, track became a great off-season conditioner and led Paul to setting the school record there in both the discus and shot put.

He once mused on setting the discus record and how, the night before, he went out with a bunch of teammates and bought a half-dozen jelly doughnuts which he ate that night. The next day, he set the record of 143 feet.

After relating that story to his son Mark, co-captain of the 1978 Gardner High football team, the younger Harasimowicz emulated his dad’s feat. However, instead he knocked down an even dozen jelly donuts before a game with Somerville, which was one of the best of his own career.

Family became a huge focal point for Harasimowicz and his wife, the former Catherine Murphy who was his high school sweetheart and a former Gardner High cheerleader. In time, they were an inseparable pair traversing the countryside to watch their sons, daughter and, later, grandchildren through their own athletic exploits.

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Following an outstanding collegiate career at Vermont, where he was an All-Yankee Conference and Small College All-New England All-Star as an offensive and defensive tackle, Harasimowicz got a pro football offer from the Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL.

He was also drafted by the Montreal Alouettes and the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League. However, at the time he was also entertaining an offer to attend McGill University in Montreal for dental school.

“It wasn’t much of a decision,” he would say in later years. “Today you would defer going to (dental) school, but back then you defer and you’re gone. There really wasn’t much time spent deciding. If I hadn’t gotten into dental school, I would have given it a shot.”

At McGill he continued playing football, serving as captain his senior year and leadng the 1960 team to the school's first Canadian championship. Eight of the starting 11 players were in the dental program, while the others were in the medical program.

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While at McGill, he and his wife Cathy married and soon another generation of Harasimowicz athletes would be making a name for themselves at Gardner High.

After spending some time as a service dentist at Fort Dix, N.J., he and Cathy returned to Gardner in 1961 and bought a home on Edgell Street, a mere foul ball away from venerable Stone Field.

Each of their children became standout Wildcat athletes over the years, and later excelled at Division II college programs.

Paul III (GHS ‘75) had a hall of fame career as the first of the family’s three-sport Gardner High athletes and captain of the football, basketball and baseball teams. He later co-captained the football and baseball teams at Amherst College.

Middlebury College became the destination for three more of the Harasimowicz clan.

Steve (GHS ’77) was a three-sport athlete in high school and later a three-year starter at Middlebury, while Jim (GHS ’83) also played football at the same college. Carrie (GHS ’88), the only girl of the bunch, was a three-sport athlete earning a hall of fame selection in high school, while at Middlebury she co-captained the field hockey team and also played basketball.

Mark (GHS ’79), another three-sport high school athlete, was a cornerback and punter for Tufts University. One memorable day back in the early 80s, Mark’s Tufts team met up with Steve’s Middlebury team on the gridiron, with Steve on offense and Mark on defense.

“One of the worst games I ever went to, I really couldn’t root for one or the other,” Paul Jr. noted, but did recall with a smile, “there were a couple of pretty good shots given out (between brothers).”

Over the years, the Harasimowiczs relished the title as “the first family of local football.” For some 35 years, there had rarely been a fall weekend that didn’t find the Harasimowicz family gathered at some type of football game. Often, as many as four in a weekend.

When the grandchildren arrived on the scene, Paul and Cathy could be found up and down the East Coast following their grandchildren who played at Harvard, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Davidson (North Carolina) and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, among other places.

And for good measure, Paul would reserve Friday nights to work the chain gang for Wildcat football games while his grandsons played.

However, it wasn’t all-football for Harasimowicz, who displayed his woodworking talents with many items donated for auction at the annual Festival of Trees at the Gardner Museum. For many years, he was also the fix-it man at the museum, performing everything from landscaping to carpentry.

In 1977 he became the second-youngest athlete inducted into the University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame. And in 1995, he followed son Paul and daughter Carrie into the GHS Athletic Hall of Fame.

“If there was such a thing as football genes in the family, I guess we got them,” said his wife Cathy with a laugh.

The Greater Gardner area has lost a giant of a man whose heart and giving spirit more than matched his imposing stature.

(Contact Mike Richard at mikerichard0725@gmail.com or in writing Mike Richard, 92 Boardley Rd. Sandwich, MA 02563)

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Gardner High football family loses local legend Paul Harasimowicz Jr.