Michael D'Orio

Michael D’Orio of Windham died peacefully at home of pancreatic cancer with his family gathered around on May 4, 2016. Mike was born in Serracapriola in the Foggia region of Southern Italy on December 3, 1944, the son of Phillip and Velia Tartaglia D’Orio. Mike’s first memory is of a US GI giving him a bar of chocolate. In February of 1954 he immigrated to the United States with his mother, Velia and his sister, Maria. His father, Phillip, was born in Brooklyn, lived in Italy, but permanently came to the states in 1952, where they lived in Brooklyn. Mike entered the Navy Reserve at the age of 17, and upon graduating high school went to basic training and entered the US Navy. During a 28 year career Mike reached the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 4th Class, the highest warrant rank possible in the Navy. Mike was an aircrew member on P-2/3’s out of Brunswick NAS and hunted Soviet submarines in the North Atlantic during the Cold War. He served as CIC Officer on the USS America, as Security Director where he developed and taught security protocol in Dam Neck, VA, and ran operations of the US Naval Base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Mike retired from the Navy on March 31, 1989. Mike traveled the world while in the Navy and loved to recount stories of his visits to Spain, Somalia, Kenya, Australia, Japan and countless other nations. He earned a BA in English from the University of New Hampshire. Mike met his wife, Joleen on a hike on June 29, 1996 and they were married on June 12, 2004. Mike loved hiking and backpacking, which he and Joleen did together. Together they backpacked the entire Appalachian Trail in Maine that includes the 100 Mile Wilderness. They hiked all of New England’s Highest 100 peaks in wintertime becoming only the 89th and 90th people to accomplish this feat which was completed by summiting Boundary Peak on December 22, 2010. Mike loved telling stories of their winter adventures, including their hike in Baxter with a -38 degree morning temperature and summiting Sugar Loaf when the parking lot temperature was -10 degrees and 50 mph winds at the summit. He accomplished two presidential traverses by summiting all of the presidential peaks in the White Mountains during a single day. He loved meeting new people on hikes and was a naturally friendly and outgoing person. He loved working in the yard and around their house in Windham. Mike loved his dog, Gina, who will miss their mutual love, but was less fond of Sammie, Joleen’s 28 year old parrot. He loved electronics and even built a large screen television from scratch, transistor by transistor. Mike was a collector of movies, especially historical movies, and his collection rivaled any video archive in its size. His other interests included stamp and coin collecting. Mike loved history and as a child had read through the entire encyclopedia remembering nearly every fact and figure. Mike has four children, Stanly, Denise, Michael and Marena, and seven grandchildren. His sister Maria lives on Long Island with her husband Al. He enjoyed visiting and spending time with her and visiting wineries throughout New York’s Long Island. Visiting hours will be on Tuesday, May 10 from 4-6 p.m. at the Dolby Funeral Chapel, 434 River Road, Windham where a service will follow at 6 p.m. Burial will be private.

Michael D'Orio

December 3, 1944 - May 4, 2016

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