2. During different scenes of the movie, DeBole offers his commentary about what’s
happening. He would often make fun of the Soviet Union’s lack of quality, while talking how
U.S. submarines have been using nuclear technology without any incidents occuring.
You get a sense of his character and his teaching methods in the little conversations that
he has with his students. DeBole is an informal professor, he loves having a conversation with
his students and engaging with them.
DeBole worked in different fields of government and politics in a career spanning more
than three decades; but his coolest and most enjoyable job is teaching at Lasell. “It’s a place
where you really get to make a difference by helping to guide young people into some of the
things that they wanna do,” said DeBole.
DeBole started teaching right after graduating from college. He taught in numerous
colleges in and around Boston. These colleges are Bunker Hill, Salem State, Endicott, Emerson,
Bentley, Suffolk, and Lasell. Some of which he is still teaching at.
“I always done it, I always enjoyed it,” said DeBole. His enjoyment comes from him
wanting to keep his perspectives fresh. DeBole loves relating with young students as he gets
older, as they allow him to see things in a different light. He learns from his students as much as
they learn from him.
Lasell has a special place in DeBole’s heart. He started teaching here in 2006 and was
offered a full time position in 2012. He loves how Lasell encourages professors and students to
have a relationship, which doesn’t happen as much in other colleges.
3. “He has many fine qualities he is very hardworking, thoughtful, kind, compassionate,
ethical, sincere, responsible, dedicated to his students and the college,” said Head of the
Communications Department Professor Janice Barrett in an email interview.
DeBole is also very popular with his students. The students love his conversational ways
of teaching. “He loves to listen to the students opinions, and whatever different point of view you
have he will respect it,” said Nasser Alhussain, Law major and advisee to DeBole. “He also
helps me as a Saudi student and understands that I might not understand what he is talking about
sometimes,” said Alhussain.
What students also love about him is even though he might have very different opinions
in politics, he never excludes anyone and loves to listen to different opinions. “I thought I wasn’t
going to like him because we have differing opinions but he’s very warm and inviting,” said
Abigail Adams, Political Communications major. “He can look past peoples opinions and look at
them as a person,” said Adams.
But the biggest quality that DeBole brings to his students is his experience in politics and
government. “If we talk about Lasell as being a place where Connected Learning matters, it’s
really helpful when professors have connections from the outside world,” said Communications
Professor Marie Franklin. “It was very exciting to have the Governor of Massachusetts come to
Lasell and he was there because Paul knows him personally,” said Franklin.
His career started as an employee of the City of Boston in the grants management
department, eventually leading him to work with John McCain in his 2000 presidential election
as the deputy field director and an advisor for the 2008 presidential election.
4. But his love for politics wasn’t something he discovered in college or after graduating, he
loved politics since he was a child. DeBole was born to Salvatore and Joanne DeBole in Boston
on November 11, 1959. He grew up in a very close family and loved growing up in East Boston.
His close relationship with his father is what made him love politics. His father owned a
grocery store that a lot of politicians frequented. When he was in the third grade, he helped
campaign for his father’s friend. He accompanied his father to the polling place, watched them
count the vote, and went to the party afterwards. It was a very enjoyable experience for young
Paul and he was hooked ever since.
DeBole’s love for politics was so huge that he used to skip school during the 1972
elections and volunteer for the Nixon campaign. At that age, a number of high profile politicians
used to come to his father’s grocery shop. Each Monday morning, he would get to hang out with
Congressman Tip O’Neill and Speaker of the House Joe Moakley.
“They don’t make politicians like that anymore. If they did, there would be more people
involved in politics,” said DeBole.
After graduating from school, DeBole got accepted in Boston University as a premed
and math major. He dropped out of Boston University and studied at Boston State College for a
couple of semesters. After taking a couple of history classes, he switched majors again when he
got into Suffolk University and graduated as a history major.
He was also working at the City of Boston in the grants management department. “I
basically pushed paper from one corner of my desk to the other and occasionally thought about
it,” said DeBole.
5. DeBole studied Law for two years at the New England School of Law. After graduating
from law school he started his own business as a title examiner. He also practiced law for a while
but didn’t enjoy the field. “The only way to do your job well was to make other people look bad,
and I just didn’t like the predatory nature,” said DeBole.
He moved around and worked for the Federal Government in the justice department, then
worked for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, before going on to work for the MBTA the
real estate department and then the budget department.
His biggest experience in politics came when he started working with Senator John
McCain a couple of months before his 1999 presidential campaign. He held a number of
positions during the election; first starting off as an advance man, then becoming a deputy field
director, and finally being Senator McCain’s driver, keeping an eye on him, and making sure he
didn’t get into trouble.
“A presidential campaign is like a marathon,” said DeBole. That statement wasn’t an
exaggeration; when the campaign first started McCain was at two percent at the polls. DeBole
and McCain were on the road for 18 hours a day going to town hall meetings, meeting people,
going to little league games, among other activities to help McCain gain popularity.
DeBole was in charge of setting up the events, making sure the crowd is there, taking
care of the press, and planning out the logistics of getting to other events and how best to
approach them. It was a valuable experience for DeBole, and his work allowed him to have an
advisory role for McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Away from politics and teaching, DeBole has a number of other interests. He loves to eat
and sleep, and when he was younger he used to go scuba diving. He enjoys taking flying lessons,
6. as well as watching the Patriots each Sunday; but DeBole’s first interest is his family and his
three dogs. DeBole married his wife Stacy in 1985 and had his daughter Amber in 1987, he
mentions his family a lot in his classes which shows his side as a loving and caring family man.
Paul DeBole’s experience in government and politics isn’t the only factor that makes him
a good professor. It’s his fun loving character, his ability to reach his students and relate to them,
and his respect for his colleagues that makes him one of the most popular professors at Lasell. “I
have never heard anyone say a bad thing about Paul DeBole,”said Marie Franklin, perfectly
summing up the attitudes of his students and colleagues towards him.
