A story by Mike Luciano from 1973-2014
Mike Luciano talks about his 41 years working and living in a Maine paper making community.
Mike Luciano is a third-generation paper maker whose roots extend to the Mayflower on his mother’s side; his father’s family immigrated from Abruzzo, Italy in 1908, joining a growing community of Italian stone masons and paper workers in Livermore Falls.
Mike worked production, accounting, and human resources jobs during his 41 years of employment at the Otis and Androscoggin Mills. A self-described “Townie”, Mike has traveled the globe while working for Madison Paper. He is most proud of his ability as an HR Manager to keep people in his community employed.
The mill whistle used at the Otis Mill blew to mark shifts, the end of the day, and for emergencies--like when Mike's mother went into labor with him in 1952 and couldn't get down the hill from her house without assistance from the boy scouts.
Mike Luciano, like a lot of children of mill workers, delivered baskets filled with hot meals to parents at the mill. He said of his father, "He loved working at the mill, he lived the mill."
Mike Luciano at Maine's Paper and Heritage Museum, 2017
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