Gene Cassidy, Patch Staff

I grew up in Natick on the Boston Marathon route and remember watching it out the window in 3rd grade when I had chicken pox. My wife grew up a half-mile from my house but we never knew each other until we started dating. I attended Boston University's School of Communication but worked as a general carpenter after I stopped college. I had many other jobs such as bartender, ironworker, boatyard worker, parking valet, and cab driver. In the late 1980s my daughter was born and I started working at what was then The Middlesex News on the opinion pages. I worked at night, my wife worked in high-tech during the day and we took care of our daughter and then son on our alternating schedules. I left as news editor of CNC West's four daily newspapers  in 2003. I worked at Whole Foods Market - a great company in so many ways - until 2010. After breaking my back in a non-work related fall, I decided to go back to a sit-down job. I worked for the Framingham Patch. When the Hopkinton job unexpectedly opened up at Patch, the regional editor asked me to step in. I can't tell you how glad I am that this bit of Kismet worked out. I get to do everything involved with cutting edge local media and I love working in Hopkinton. Nancy, my wife, had meanwhile taken refuge from the late 1990s high-tech implosion by getting a job involving her true love, gardening. Say hello when you see her at Weston Nurseries!