Paul Joseph Verrochi, a Walpole-area machinist, business owner and devoted car builder who spent decades working with family and hands-on projects, died Tuesday at age 87. He died June 9, 2026, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Needham, Massachusetts.
Verrochi’s life was rooted in East Walpole, where he was born Dec. 7, 1938, in the family home and raised as the son of the late Thomas and Mary (Romanelli) Verrochi. He graduated from Walpole High School with the Class of 1958 and went to work at Hill Machine Shop on School Street, beginning a career that would stay close to the machine shop floor and the town that shaped it.
He and his brothers Tom and Ed later formed TEPCO on Route 1A at the Norfolk-Wrentham line, then bought Gilmore’s Inc. on Route 27 in Walpole in 1973. Verrochi handled the day-to-day work there with his family, a role that fit the meticulous life he built around work, cars and home. He married Pamela Jean Scott on Feb. 11, 1984, and the two made their home on Moosehill Road in East Walpole.
He sold his share of Gilmore’s in 1991 and returned to machining before spending 10 years with US Wind Power in Stoughton, retiring in 2001. Along the way, he built a 1932 Ford Deuce Coupe from the frame up, powered by a 327 ci Corvette Engine, and the car was featured in Hot Rod Magazine. He and Pam also traveled across the country to pick up her father’s 1919 Model A Woody Wagon, another sign of how deeply cars ran through the family’s story.
The obituary also notes the losses that marked that family life: several close relatives had died before him, including brothers and a stepson. Verrochi is survived by his wife, two children, a stepdaughter, grandchildren, five step grandchildren and nine step great grandchildren. Relatives and friends were invited to his visitation on Monday, June 15, 2026, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at James H. Delaney & Son Funeral Home in Walpole.
