My Influences

While inspired by many of the well-known leaders that have accomplished great deeds in societies, it is his dad and his selfless, quiet service to country, family and his fellow man that most inspires Dupalo. Born in the midst of the great depression in 1935, a child through World War II, Dupalo's father grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, surviving challenges and struggles many do not face. At age 18, working in a steel mill in Buffalo, New York, he was drafted in 1953 into the US Army. Months later, he was serving in the Korean War. It was the beginning of a 21 year career that saw 3.5 years in combat zones - 1.5 years in Korea and two tours of Vietnam, earning his Ranger tab, standing guard at Spandau prison amongst other notable achievments, and retiring as an E-9, Sergeant Major.

Whether it was buying meals at diners for homeless, donating our used items to the red Goodwill box when the family had little, or accomplishing friends and co-workers tax returns each year for free, he did so quietly.

He never took the easy route when faced with the challenges, only the ethical route. Once he said to me a simple phrase which I have never forgotten "Good people do good things because they are good people."

Dupalo's mother also influenced him when he was young, rescuing animals, sending donation boxes to orphanages, sponsoring a child overseas, and donation box fundraising for the needy. Born in 1940 amidst a world war, she endured years of Allied bombings. Following the war, she spent time with her brother in an orphanage and only by sheer luck found once again by her mother. She never passed the sixth grade. Her own mother was known as one of the 'rubble' women who pieced together factories from the rubble of war.

In 1947 to 1948, it was the American military via the Berlin Airlift that saved her, her brother and mother from the Soviet mass starvation effort against Berlin and the Allies.