Lorek to receive Life Time Achievement Award.

Tom Lorek’s life-long interest in boxing came after watching his older brother, Frank, participate in the 1954 Cleveland Golden Gloves Tournament. Lorek started his boxing career at the St. Clair Bathhouse under trainer Sam `The Barber” Gagli

ardi. Lorek entered the 1959 Cleveland Golden Gloves Tournament as a novice in the welterweight division and he advanced to the quarter finals.

Following his graduation from East High School in Cleveland in 1957, Lorek enlisted in the United States Coast Guard. When he returned home in 1961, Lorek entered the Cleveland Golden Gloves Tournament in the novice middleweight division and advanced to the semifinals. He has attended the Cleveland Golden Gloves for the past 61 years.

After retiring as an amateur boxer, Lorek continued his interest in boxing when he became a judge for amateur boxing. A highlight of Lorek’s judging career came in 1996 when he judged the last two heavyweight division bouts of the National Golden Gloves held in Cleveland, seated next to Mike Tyson. Lorek retired from the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1989 at 50 years old with 30 years of service as a pressman. He was chapel chairman, secretary//treasurer and pension trustee for the Cleveland Newspaper Printing Pressmen Local #5. He judged 13 years of amateur and professional bouts.

Currently, he is president of Lake County Homes, Inc. He worked as a real estate broker and agent for 46 years at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Professional Realty (formerly Prudential Select Properties) in Lake County.

Lorek and his wife, Sherry, have been married for 51 years. They have two sons, Tommy and Gary; daughter-in-laws, Laura and Jenny; and four wonderful grandchildren, Danielle, Allison, Brenna, and Ryan (Champ). They reside in Mentor. His grandchildren have now become his first love (besides Sherry) and boxing has dropped to second place. Lorek is being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award along with Bill Futchi, Paul LaBuda, and Joe Gentile.