Lifelong West Pittston resident, Jerry Zezza, has been named the 2022 West Pittston Cherry Blossom Festival Grand Marshal.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Jerry Zezza, retired 39 year Woming Area educator, has been named the Grand Marshal of the 2022 West Pittston Cherry Blossom Festival.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
WEST PITTSTON — Jerry Zezza is a fortunate man. He has been able to live, work and raise his family in the same town he grew up in for the past 80 years.
Zezza, whose name is well known in the Garden Village, has been named the Grand Marshal of the 2022 West Pittston Cherry Blossom Festival.
“I was kind of surprised and shocked when I was asked to be Grand Marshal,” Zezza said. “I didn’t know what to think when they asked me.”
The former West Pittston/Wyoming Area art teacher said he was humbled by the decision when asked, and was very appreciative of the gesture.
West Pittston residents knew of the Zezza name decades ago when Zezza’s father, Jerry Sr., owned and operated a service station at the corner of Exeter and Tunkhannock Avenues for many years.
Going through the West Pittston School system, Zezza developed a love of basketball, playing for then coach Jim Atherton and later having the opportunity to coach along side him after he graduated from college.
Zezza continued coaching basketball at Wyoming Area for both the boys and girls programs all but a few years during his 39-year teaching career.
He was a longtime boy’s assistant varsity coach to basketball legend Simon Bernosky before taking over the reigns after Bernosky retired in 1975. He finished out his head-coaching job as the Warriors girl’s varsity coach.
“I took it (basketball) very seriously and I scouted our opponents very well each week,” Zezza recalled.
Jerry and his late wife Jean “Cookie” Zezza raised four children, daughter Diane (Dave Selkregg) and three sons, Jerry (Doreen), Stephen (Devin) and David in West Pittston, all graduating from Wyoming Area.
He is the grandfather to nine grandchildren, Sam and Ben Selkregg, Jordan, Jeremy, Aaron, Joey Jean, David Jr., Ryan, and Michael Zezza and one great granddaughter, Evelyn.
Since his wife, Cookie, passed away in 2014, Zezza has enjoyed getting out for lunch with his former faculty friends like Bill Schalles, Carl Rosencrance, Ed Yarmel, Joe Sharaba, Phil Russo, Don Cassetori, as well as the late Dave Dembowski and John Zwirek.
You can also find Zezza on a golf course becoming an avid golfer, even serving as the treasurer at Emanon Golf Club, Harding, for many years.
You can see Jerry in the West Pittston Cherry Blossom Festival parade as well as during the opening ceremony on Saturday, April 30. The parade steps off at noon.
