CATCHING UP WITH JOHN FAZIO, CLASS OF 1970, SON OF JOHN FAZIO, CLASS OF 1947

 

 

        1970 JOHN FAZIO AND WIFE CHRISTINE, A FAIRMONT WEST GRADUATE

    1947 JOHN FAZIO WEDDING ANNIVERSARY MONTAGE 

                                       1947 JOHN FAZIO AS MONONGAH HIGH FOOTBALL PLAYER 

           EVERYWHERE A FAZIO

           DAVID AND CORA FAZIO MEET POPE FRANCIS

CATCHING UP WITH

John Fazio,

Class of 1970

 

This John Fazio, Class of 1970, lettered in football (1968 and 1969 Monongah High state championship teams), basketball, golf and track (on the 4x220 relay team that set the West Virginia record because Kerry Marbury, who was first in 100-yard dash and hurdles, too, and Miller were super speedsters on the MHS team).

 

He was All-State in 1969 and unanimous All-Marion County in football and All-Marion County in basketball.

 

This John Fazio graduated from Fairmont State, got his masters degree from WVU and his doctorate in business administration from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

 

This John Fazio taught business courses in college (2000-2022).  He lives in Charleston with wife Christine, a Fairmont West grad. They have two sons, Michael in Louisville, Kentucky, and Nick in St. Petersburg, Florida, which has an awesome pier that I have enjoyed many times during my 30+ winters in Florida of 1 to 3 months at a time.

 

This John Fazio also told me: “That lanky Monongah High pitcher is my father,” and I remember well papa John Fazio’s awesome pitching for the Lions.

 

If you want to have a phone reunion with the Class of 1970 John Fazio his Charleston phone number is (304) 344-4961.

 

His grandparents were Domenick Fazio and Christine Fazio. The 1970 John Fazio’s brother is Joe Fazio. Their lanky father, Class of 1947, was a Concord University professor after playing minor league baseball with another MHS graduate, Eddie Lusczynski, on the Durham, North Carollna Bulls with Crash Davis, who was played by Kevin Costner in the “Bull Durham” movie.

 

The 1947 John Fazio passed away in 2006. He married Dolores Stancheck. Their son, the 1970 John Fazio, was a professor at Marietta, Ohio, College.

 

 

There were 13 children in the Fazio family:

 

John Fazio; Renzy Fazio, married to the sister of my father (John W. Olesky, Sr.) Frances Olesky Fazio, who ran a grocery store on Jackson Street; Jeanette Fazio DiBiase, who passed away in 2003; Albert Fazio; Mary Virginia Fazio Pasquale and husband Joseph; Nick, James, Joseph and Michael Fazio; Edith Fazio DeCarlo, Elizabeth Fazio Domico, Angeline Fazio Prozzillo and Carmella Fazio DePond. 

Renzy and Frances' son, 1998 Fairmont State graduate David Fazio and wife 1973 Farmington High graduate Cora Fazio, own and operate Fazio Eldercare in Stoney Lonesome. They have been married almost 50 years. Their children are C.J., Tony and Mary Beth Fazio.

FFrances Olesky Fazio is the godmother of Class of 1970 John Fazio. Frances is the sister of my father, John W. Olesky, Sr., and Helen Olesky Kerkes (best cookie baker in family history; she used to mail me a batch every Christmas time; I salivated waiting for them arrive and me to eat!).

 

Dave’s siblings are Irene Fazio Preolitti, Class of 1966, who lives in Traction Park, Monongah, with husband Mike Preolitti, Class of 1962; Mary Chris Fazio Ramsey, Class of 1969, married to Tom Ramsey and living on Pike Street in Monongah in the home once owned by Helen (my dad’s older sister) and Steve Kerekes; and Steve Fazio, Class of 1975, who married Nancy.

 

Wow! What memories of my glorious Monongah birthplace in my Mary Peremba Olesky and Martin Olesky grandparents’ home on Walnut Street at the Pike Street intersection, then moving to the Thomas Street rental with the TWO-hole outhouse (REALLY cold to use in the winter) and finally the Church Street home with the pearl in a seashell Christmas street light I purchased years ago across the street from where I thrived till my graduation from WVU in 1954 when I headed for the Williamson Daily News to begin my 42-year newspaper career that also included Charleston, West Virginia, Daily Mail, the Dayton, Ohio, Daily News, the St. Petersburg Times, the Montana Daily Ranger (when my wife Monnie Elizabeth Turkette Olesky and I eloped and spent 6 weeks with a free honeymoon before going to the Charleston Daily Mail) and, finally, for my final 26 years, the Akron, Ohio, Beacon Journal, which won 4 Pulitzer Prizes during my time there (none by me).

Then off to travels to 56 countries, 44 states and more than 30 winters in Florida of 1 to 3 months (Joan, who lives with me in my Tallmadge, Ohio condo, and I will be spending the entire month of February 2024 in Florida, with our base hotel in Bradenton). If you’re near Bradenton in February call me at (330) 388-4466 and we’ll have a Lions Reunion.

Those are ALWAYS fun times for me with exchanges of our Monongah High memories and our lives after our Lions days.