Richard LaPine
(Baseball, 1947)
For nearly forty years "Richie" LaPine could be found somewhere on the DHS campus whether it was as a player, a coach or a teacher. He was a mainstay on White Street and later on Clapboard Ridge. It is for the many contributions he has made to the community, the school, and the athletic programs that he is being honored here tonight. While he played baseball and football it was a basketball player that Richie excelled the most leading the Hatter Roundballers in scoring in the 1946-1947 season. After graduating from DHS in 1947 Rich enrolled in the Jesse Lee Academy where he was team MVP in all three major sports at that time-baseball, football and basketball. Rich attended Springfield College in the fall of 1948 where he took up another sport-wrestling. It was Richie LaPine who first introduced wrestling in the physical education classes at DHS and, well, you know the rest of the story as pertains to Hatter wrestling. In 1952 he graduated from Springfield and entered the U.S. Army and fought in the Korean conflict. Upon being mustered out of Uncle Sam's Army he began a thirty year career as a teacher and coach at Danbury High School. His career in the Danbury school system saw him teach biology and physical education, coach baseball, football and basketball at all levels of play. He started the first Club Soccer program at DHS which eventually led to it becoming a varsity program and, as previously mentioned, he first introduced wrestling to Danbury. He retired from the Danbury schools in 1983. As impressive as his teaching a coaching career was, his involvement with charitable and community service organizations is even more impressive. He is actively involved in the Old Timer's Association and has served in many executive positions, he is a member of the Korean War Veteran's Association and is currently a vice president, he was a board member of Westerner's baseball, he has volunteered in American Cancer Society drives, and he has spent seventeen years volunteering on the Danbury Hospital Development Fund.