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The Life of ROCCO CERCHIARA

ROCCO CERCHIARA, M.A. 

Mr. Cerchiara, one of God's truly elect spirits, was called to the House of many Mansions after a brief illness. He had undergone a prostate operation and was making a complete recovery, when a blood clot in the heart took him away almost instantly. 

He was born on April the 18th, 1887 in Italy, the youngest of four children. He lost his father when he was only eleven months old, and his mother tried to do her best in rearing the children. The oldest boy, Lawrence, sought adventure in the United States of America and settled in Brooklyn, where he was converted and was a colportour-evangelist for many years. He sent for his young brother, Rocco, when he was only eight years of age, and tried to guide him as a brother and as a father, but finding the task difficult and in order to give the boy a better opportunity, he placed him in an orphanage in Texas. In time, the boy from Italy, accustomed to the freedom of his mountains, left the enclosure of the orphanage, and was taken in by a fine Christian family in that great state. Later he returned to Brooklyn and made his home with his sister and brother, to continue his education. 

At first he worked during the day and went to night school until he was graduated from high school. But his thirst for knowledge could not be satisfied with just a secondary education and so he enrolled at Colgate University doing every kind of work from waiting tables, to firing furnaces, from scrubbing floors to taking care of lawns, and finally in June 1917, he received his Master of Education degree and the much coveted honor, the Phi Beta Kappa Key.

Since there were no teaching positions available in the summer months, he accepted an offer with the YMCA in Pittsburgh, PA. The summer occupation, however, stretched to thirty-one years of most efficient and creative work in the field of Americanization and membership and dormitory Secretary at the East Liberty YMCA. Soon after he arrived in East Liberty, he met the Bisceglia family and on September 20, 1919 he married the second daughter Victoria. From the happy union three boys and a girl were born. Mr. Cerchiara assumed the responsibility of his mother and took care of her until she passed away and gave their children a fine education. 

In 1948, having reached the compulsory retirement age prescribed by the YMCA, Mr. Cerchiara did not want to remain idle, hence, he joined the Investment Banking Firm of Arthurs Lestrange and Company, where he remained until he went to the hospital. His second position proved most fruitful financially and as a consultant to people who wished to invest money, he made a host of friends all over the smoky City.

Mr. Cerchiara was a member of the East End Baptist Church where he served as a Deacon, a teacher of the Adult Men's Class and a member of the Ordination Committee.

The simplicity of Mr. Cerchiara's life was further reflected in the services held at the Funeral Home, in which his brother-in-law, Dr. Bisceglia of Kansas City, offered the prayer and the pastor of his church, the Rev. Robert Pitcock, read several selections from the Old and New Testament and pronounced the benediction.

To Mrs. Cerchiara, to her children, Paul, David, Richard and Mary and to all her relatives, in proferring our profound sympathy, we say: "Our lives have been made richer and our outlook brighter because we were privileged to know and count as a friend Mr. Rocco Cerchiara.

The many floral tributes, the large number of friends who proffered their condolences to the family at the Funeral Home, and the countless letters and telegrams of sympathy, attest to the love and esteem in which the Cerchiara family is held by people far and near. 


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1961.10.17
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2018.01.12
Two generations

a picture of my great grandmother along with my grandfather Rocco and his wife Victoria J. Cerchiara
Posted by Rocco C on 01/12/2018