Rocco Vacca
September
8, 1937 - September 15, 2009
Rocco
J. Vacca, age 72, of Turin Road,
passed away September 15, 2009, St. Luke’s
Hospital, with his loving family at his side.
He was born September 8, 1937, in Rome, a son of Ralph
and Maria Oppito Vacca, and graduated from Rome
Free
Academy
in 1955, and the Crane School of Music at SUNY
Potsdam in 1959. Rocco was united in marriage
to the former Mary Ellen Santalucy, on July 3,
1965, at St. Agnes Church in Utica.
He was a music teacher in the Rome City School
District and taught at Staley Jr. High School
and Rome Free Academy; retiring after 33 years
of teaching. He served as President and
accompanist of the Crane Chorus. He was a
member of St. Paul’s
Church and a former member of the Rome Lions
Club, Knights of Columbus and Rome Choral
Society.
Rocco
is survived by his loving wife, Mary Ellen; a
daughter and son-in-law, Beth and Gary Luvera
of Whitesboro; a son and daughter-in-law, Mark
and Barbara Vacca of Rome; two sisters and a
brother-in-law and a brother and
sister-in-law, Antoinette Tuzzolino of Rome,
William and Stella Vacca of Rome, and Anne and
Sam Marafioti of N. Fort Myers, FL; four
grandchildren, Joshua and Jacob Luvera of
Whitesboro and Maria and Ellen Vacca of Rome;
and several nieces and nephews, including a
special niece, Palma Palazzo. He was
predeceased by a brother, Michael Vacca.
Funeral
services will be held Friday at 10:30 a.m.
from the Barry Funeral Home, 807 W.
Chestnut Street,
and at 11:00 a.m. at St. Paul’s
Church. Burial will be in St.
John the Baptist Cemetery.
Relatives and friends may call at the funeral
home, Thursday 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m.
Memorial
contributions may be made to the Vacca Family
Music Scholarship Fund, C/O First Niagara
Bank, 2 Franklin Avenue,
Clinton, NY 13323.
I remember
Mr. Vacca
During
the first week of school in eighth grade, I
was in Mr. Vacca’s class. I did not
know him at all at the time, as I had Mr.
Perry and Mrs. Harper the year before in
seventh grade. (Perry when I was in the “B”
group, Harper when I got moved to “C”
group) I’m sure some in this RCR group
were in the same class with Mr. Vacca.
He was feeling us out with some simple vocal
exercises and having us sing “do re mi fa
sol la ti do” and after each time, he’d
raise the key on the piano. I sat in
the rear of the class and after a few
repetitions, I decided to get louder and
louder until I reached a totally obnoxious
volume level which caused him to stop the
class and ask “Who was that?” He was a
bit upset, but he always had this calm
matter of fact manner about him. After
a moment of silence, he asked a second time,
and with other kids in the class looking
over and waiting for me to speak up, I
finally admitted it. He calmly and
simply told me I was to report to him for
the next 5 consecutive days for a hour long
detention after school. Geez, I
thought it was a bit harsh, but what could I
do? So, I showed up, sat down quietly
and he actually told me during that first
detention that though he knew I was being a
wise guy while singing, that he thought I
sounded on key and asked if I would consider
joining the glee club. I thought it
might get me out of the other 4 days if I
said yes, so I said sure. Well, it
didn’t get me out of anything, but each day,
he and I talked about music and I showed him
stuff I learned on piano, most of which I
learned from Mr. Reeser in Columbus
Elementary. Even though I had Bowler
in sisth grade, I took lessons from Reeser
on the days the kids left for church school
in the afternoon. Well, Mr. Vacca was
impressed and we ended up messing with
something musical every day of the detention
and became great friends. I joined the
glee club and had a blast. I’ll
forever remember his glee club arrangement
of “Do You Hear What I Hear?” for the
Christmas program. I got chills at the
time.
I contacted Mr. Vacca in
September 2000 via postal mail. It
was the first time I had spoken with him
since leaving Rome in 1966. In the
letter, I told him who I was and
reminded him of the 5-day detention
experience. He was quite surprised
to hear from me and pleasantly welcomed
the reconnection. I shared all my
original music with him and he wrote the
nicest hand written letters of anyone
I’ve known. I eventually visited
him, I think in 2005 or 2006 during one
of my Rome visits and took my guitar and
played for him and his wife. I was
there most of the day. It's funny,
though he insisted I call him Rocco, it
never felt natural. He and his
wife were so charming. I’ll never forget
that visit. I also sent Mr. Vacca
CDs of my daughter Krista and son
Corey. They are both guitarists
and song writers. Mr. Vacca always took
the time to listen and write me back in
detail about each and every song.
It meant so much to me.
On February 27 2008, my
son Corey died at the young age of
21. It took me so long to write to
Mr. Vacca to tell him, but I finally did
so about 6 or 7 months later. He
wrote back to me expressing his
condolences. I wanted to call him
but at the time I just couldn't speak
much about Corey without breaking down
totally. A few weeks later, I
received a letter from the Jervis
library in Rome, NY telling me that Mr.
and Mrs. Vacca had purchased and donated
a gift to the library in memory of my
son Corey. It was so thoughtful of
them to do this. The letter also
said that when the gift arrived, I would
be notified.
Well, months went by and
I had not received any other
correspondence from the library. I
figured I'd wait until I received the
notice from Jervis, then call Mr. Vacca
to thank him. On September 16,
2008, I went to the Philippines on
vacation for 10 days. When I
returned, I had a ton of mail to go
through. One of the letters that
stuck out was one from the Jervis
library that was postmarked September
15. It said that the gift donated
by Mr. and Mrs. Vacca had arrived.
It was a book on music
composition. I was thrilled and
was certainly going to call Mr. Vacca
the next day. As I kept going
through my other mail, I noticed I had a
letter from Patty Peterson, also from
Rome. When I opened it, I almost
fell over with sadness. Enclosed
was Mr. Vacca's obituary. I didn't
want to believe it and ironically, the
very date he died was Sept 15, the same
as the postmark on the Jervis Library
envelope. I called Mrs. Vacca and
spoke at length, holding back my tears
and trying to remain as coherent as I
could. She was very calm and had
accepted Mr. Vacca's passing very well,
telling me that she had a wonderful long
life with him and felt blessed.
Listening to her comforted me. She
told me that my family's CDs were still
on his piano and that he had been
listening to them days before he went
into the hospital. I was so
touched. Mr. Vacca remains my
favorite teacher ever and my memory of
him will never leave. - Dennis
Parrish
Below is Mr. Vacca's
obituary along with the Jervis Library
info.
