Jesse Vincent Fardella's Obituary
Jesse V. Fardella, age 96, of Bethel Park, PA, originally of Coraopolis, passed away peacefully on June 5, 2016. Jesse is survived by his loving and longtime companion, Marleen Suess of Indiana Township, his four children, Jess Fardella (Marcia) of Brooklyn, NY, Janet Schaeffer, Laurel Fardella (Don Miller), and Amy Fardella (Cliff Hakim), all of the Boston, MA area. Jesse also is survived by five grandchildren: Grace Fardella, Teresa Fardella, Eric Schaeffer, Gabriella Hakim, and Devon Miller, and by his sister Lucy Weisler, formerly of New London, CT and now of Burlington, MA. Jesse was formerly married to Rita Thomas Fardella, the mother of his four children, now of Arlington, MA,.
Jesse had many happy memories from his college days at Penn State where he received a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1943, was a member of the Sigma Pi fraternity, and served as all-college vice president. At Penn State he also was a member of the boxing team and won the Eastern Collegiate Boxing Association title in his weight class in 1942. Jesse always remained a fiercely loyal Penn State football fan, traveling to both home and away games and enjoying many years of tailgate parties. Following college, Jesse served in WWII as an officer and salvage diver in the US Navy, which awarded him the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, its highest non-combat decoration for heroism. He spent more than 35 years at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation as a mechanical engineer, most of it working on nuclear power projects for the US Navy and later for commercial clients in the US and abroad. Jesse was an avid jazz fan and long-time mainstay of the Pittsburgh Jazz Society, and remained everyone's favorite swing dance partner into his nineties.
A memorial mass will be held on Saturday, June 18th at 10AM at St. Gabriel's Church, 5200 Greenridge Dr., Whitehall, followed by a memorial reception at 1PM at The Grand Concourse at Station Square, 100 West Station Square Dr., Pittsburgh. Donations may be made in lieu of flowers to Jazz Workshop, Inc., 7101 Hamilton Ave., Pittsburgh PA 15208, http://www.jazzworkshopinc.org/, or Family Hospice & Palliative Care, 50 Moffett St., Pittsburgh PA 15243, https://www.familyhospicepa.org/donate.
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