Editing Ferdinand Waldo Demara (section)

== Early life and adulthood ==
Demara, known locally as 'Fred', was born in [[Lawrence, Massachusetts|Lawrence]], [[Massachusetts]], in 1921. His father, Ferdinand Waldo Demara Sr., was born in [[Rhode Island]] and worked in Lawrence's old Theatre District as a motion picture operator. Demara Sr. had been financially well-off, and the family lived in an upper-class neighborhood on Jackson St. in Lawrence. Demara Sr.'s brother, Napoleon, owned many of the theatres in Lawrence, in which Demara Sr. was an active [[trade union|union]] member. Early in the [[Great Depression]], Fred's father became financially insolvent, forcing the family to move from the Tower Hill neighborhood to the poorer section in the city, at 40 Texas Avenue in the lower southwest Tower Hill neighborhood.

During this financially troubled time, Demara Jr. ran away from home at age 16 to join the [[Trappist]] monks in Rhode Island.<ref name="Time-1957">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936819-1,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106081257/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936819-1,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 6, 2012|title=Americana: Ferdinand the Bull Thrower|date=February 25, 1957 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|accessdate=30 October 2010}}</ref> After two years, he was told he wasn't suited to being a Trappist and was sent instead to a [[Brothers of Charity]] home near Montreal, Canada.<ref name="NCR">{{cite news |last1=Cavanaugh |first1=Ray |title=Brother, doctor, soldier, lies |url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/brother-doctor-soldier-lies |access-date=April 29, 2022 |work=National Catholic Reporter |date=July 17, 2015 |language=en}}</ref> He was then transferred to a Brothers of Charity boys home in [[West Newbury]], Massachusetts, where he taught fourth grade. After running away from the Brothers of Charity after an argument with his superior,<ref name="NCR" /> he joined the [[United States Army]] in 1941.