The oldest of seven ( 5 sisters, 1 brother) started his athletic career at St Joseph’s grammar school on Main Street. Summers would be spent on the playgrounds and swimming pool of PS #63.
Don played little league football for Karts Dairy. In 1956, his freshman year, Don played for the Bennett’s JV football team. His sophomore year, he lettered playing both offensive and defensive tackle. This is the role Don played on a team that went on to win fifteen straight games that included two Harvard Cups in his Junior and Senior years. Don was a unanimous first team All-High selection in both the Buffalo Evening News and Courier Express newspapers his senior year.
Don went on to the University of Buffalo where he played freshman football and graduated from Millard Fillmore College. In 1967, Don started a 29 year career with the Buffalo Fire Department. In 1970, Don was awarded the Buffalo Fire Department Edward H. Butler Gold Medal for Bravery.
Don is celebrating 29 years of marriage to Mary Beth Wright of Buffalo, who is a retired reading specialist from the Maryvale School System.
Don is a self employed business owner of M.B. Orsolits Co. Inc., and lives in Williamsville while not living at his summer residence in Crescent Beach, Ontario. Don plays golf, hunts, fishes and enjoys traveling with Mary Beth.