Genevieve Fiore

Genevieve Fiore
Colorado Woman of Achievement, 1967
Born	Genevieve Natalina D’Amato (1912-01-20)January 20, 1912 Sunrise, Wyoming
Died	March 10, 2002(2002-03-10) (aged 90) Denver, Colorado
Nationality	American
Occupation	Peace activist, women's rights activist
Years active	1947-2002
Known for	Founding the UNESCO office of Denver

Genevieve Fiore (1912–2002) was an American women's rights and peace activist, who was the founder, and served as the executive director, of the Colorado Division of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Her UNESCO Club was founded in the year the clubs were first conceived and was the third organization established in the world. In 1967 she was honored as one of the inductees for the Colorado Women of Achievement Award. She was knighted by Italy in 1975 receiving the rank of Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia. In 1991, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame for her many years of peace activism and work with women's rights issues.

Genevieve Natalina D’Amato was born January 20, 1912 in Sunrise, Wyoming to Italian immigrants, Lorenzo and Anna D'Amato. Her parents had immigrated to the United States in 1908 from Petina, Italy. Her father was a miner, who taught himself blacksmithing and in 1919, moved with his family to Welby, Colorado. Initially, D'Amato attended a Catholic parochial school, but when she learned the school was not accredited, she campaigned for the Adams County School Board]] to allow she and her brother to attend a school outside of their district. The Board eventually paid half of the children's tuition and allowed them to attend Union High School #1, where they were ostracized as the first Italians in the school. D'Amato worked to overcome the stereotyping of her classmates and became senior class president and the salutatorian of her class. Her graduation with honors enabled D'Amato to earn a tuition waiver scholarship at the University of Colorado, but as her family could not afford her room and board, she did not accept the scholarship. On June 25, 1933, D'Amato married the printer John R. Fiore and they subsequently had three children: David, Phillip Dominic and Roxanna.

Having experienced personal discrimination, and losses of family members in both World War I and World War II, Fiore was passionate about creating a world focused on peace and tolerance. From the formation of the Steele Community Center in north Denver in 1937, Fiore worked as a volunteer. While serving as a board member of the Steele Center in 1947, Fiore learned that Denver was to host a regional United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) conference. The first UNESCO Club had been established a few months earlier by Koichi Ueda in Japan. Using the center’s registration, she attended the conference as an official observer and collected literature at the event to begin a UN library. She founded a UNESCO group at the Steele Center, though she initially had trouble getting others to support her pacifist views. When no one else would accept the chairmanship, Fiore took the role, planning to hire an executive director. The founding of the organization in 1947, marked only the third UNESCO club in the world, preceded by Ueda's group in Sendai and one founded in Kyoto. Urged to stay on and supported by family members Fiore became the executive director and worked an average of 70 hours per week as a volunteer.