Paul Fiacco ’96 was an inventor. His air-filtering creation, the Purifan, is a fixture in many restaurants and bars, where it removes second-hand smoke and improves air quality. The fan, which has sold more than 35,000 units, is also used in schools, day care centers and offices. Back in the mid-1990s, Fiacco was not pleased with the performance of available air cleaners. Hence, his invention, which replaces the blades of a traditional ceiling fan with a drum with air-filters.
A native of Binghamton, N.Y., Fiacco was educated as a geophysicist at the State University of New York and moved to Kansas to work in the oil business. By the early 1990s, the state of the oil industry left him discouraged. In his search for new opportunities, he enrolled at WSU, later earning a teaching degree and teaching at area schools — a calling his wife, Ginny, says he found fulfilling.
Known as a generous, humble and hard-working man, his colleagues hold him in high regard. “Paul was a great guy, very intelligent and humble,” says Stan Brannan ’72, president of Wichita-based Purifan Inc., where Fiacco worked as vice president for research and development. “He will be missed.” Larry Masters, a friend of Fiacco’s from Indiana, says Fiacco “was one of the most thoughtful persons I have ever met and such a joy to be around the short time I knew him.”
Paul Fiacco died Aug. 16 in upstate New York.
