SCIRIA, PAUL ANGELO (November 3, 1928-June 23, 2017) was a pioneer of television journalism, city councilman, editor of two Italian-American community newspapers, and an outspoken supporter of Italian heritage. His trademark tag line was "Thank you for your time, this time, until next time.”
Paul was born in Cleveland in 1928, to Sicilian immigrants, Angelo and Felicia Lillian Sciria, who lived at E. 151st Street and Kinsman Avenue. He grew up with his younger sister Madeleine in the Kinsman area and attended A.J. Rickoff Elementary, A. Hamilton Junior High, and John Adams High School. He graduated from The Ohio State University in 1951 with a BA in political science and briefly attended John Marshall School of Law.
While working part-time in Cleveland's Recreation Department, WTAM sportscaster TOM MANNING contacted Paul’s supervisor looking for a writer. Paul took the job on the spot, but continued sports writing on the side as well as doing some work with WJW radio. In 1956, Channel 3, then KYW, offered him a full-time news reporting job.
Paul was the first full-time street reporter in Cleveland television, and quickly became prominent due to his heavy-rimmed glasses and distinctive voice. In a 1961 article, the PLAIN DEALER called him “the hardest working legman among all the city’s TV reporters.” The list of interviews he conducted during his time at Channel 3 is impressive and includes The Beatles, Richard Nixon, Robert Kennedy, Jimmy Hoffa and numerous Cleveland athletes. In 1960, Paul covered the Toledo, Ohio, plane crash that took the lives of many members of the Cal Poly Mustangs college football team.
Paul’s contract with WKYC was not renewed in 1974. He then had a short stint with WWWM and WWWE Radio before starting Sciria & Associates, a public relations company. Some of his initial clients included 1975 Cleveland mayoral candidate James F. Dickerson, the Fraternal Order of Police, Park Corp., Feren Fruit Baskets, and MPE Distributing. Paul’s most prominent client was Don King. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Paul helped King promote boxing champions such as Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson. The two traveled together to the Bahamas to watch Muhammad Ali fight Trevor Berbick in 1981. Sciria and King organized the boxing benefit Show for People Care that raised over $89,000 for FOREST CITY HOSPITAL.
In 1992, Paul partnered with Angelo Commarto to produce La Gazzetta Italiana, a monthly newspaper covering Ohio's Italian-American community. He managed all aspects of paper operations including advertising sales, writing, editing, and layout. PAS Publications assumed operations of the newspaper in the early 2000s, but Paul remained editor until his death. Paul also served as a MAYFIELD HTS. councilman from 2011-2015 and, most recently, became the editor of La Nostra Voce, the newspaper of the Order Italian Sons and Daughters of America.
Paul was awarded a Judges Certificate for outstanding work in television in 1963 by The Press Club, was inducted into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame in 2009, the Cleveland International Hall of Fame in 2011, and was selected posthumously as a 2017 Cleveland Italian Heritage Month Honoree for Lifetime Service.
Paul married Franca Colabrese (1926-2005) in 1967. He had six children, Paula, Leslee, Scott, Randy, Tammy, and John, nine grandchildren, Louie, Paul, Anthony, Joseph, Nicole, Devon, Nicolas, Randy and Francesca, and three great-grandchildren. Paul passed away on June 23, 2017, in Mayfield Heights, Ohio and is buried at CALVARY CEMETERY in Cleveland, Ohio.
Pamela Dorazio Dean