History Center Dinner to Feature Local Journalist

Marino Parascenzo has a bit of nostalgia for newspapers.

He remembers his days as a “newspaper man” with great fondness.

“There was never a day that I didn’t enjoy my job,” Parascenzo said. “Every day was exciting and interesting. There was never a dull moment, and each story had a life of its own.”

His storytelling of pounding the pavement of Lawrence Avenue to find stories, to pop into businesses to see what’s new and newsworthy, and to collect police reports, takes you back in time when small town journalism was at its height.

“I loved working with my friends at the Ledger,” Parascenzo said. “There were such nice people including the Kegels that owned the paper and the Editor, Charlie Moser. It was a little paper with no impact anywhere outside Ellwood, but here it mattered.”

Parascenzo, a native son of Ellwood City – born and raised, said the excitement is what drew him to journalism.

“It looked so exciting,” he said. “Reading the newspaper back when I was a kid was all we had. There was no TV at that time. I was intrigued by the writers and their ability to be out doing all these things. I got more and more interested in doing that.”

So, he did. After a stint as a construction laborer and working in a tube mill, Parascenzo traded in his tools for pen and paper. He began his college education at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, and then with the Korean War raging, he left and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force for four years. After his discharge, he completed his college degree in journalism at Penn State and got his first job at the Ellwood City Ledger and spent the last 35 years of it as a sportswriter with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

With a lifetime of stories to share, Parascenzo will be a guest speaker at the Ellwood City Area Historical Society “Champions on Parade” dinner Monday, September 13.

Parascenzo said he is most looking forward to sharing the stories of his time at the Post-Gazette but said whether he was working covering a large-scale sporting event or covering a feature story in Ellwood City, he always wanted to do his very best work.

“Although my work at the Post-Gazette was on more of a grand scale, it all felt and mattered the same,” he said. “A story was a story you got the facts and did your best to put out the story as factually and faithfully as possible. It didn’t matter if it was a story about somebody’s puppy in Ellwood City or a grand sport spectacle in Pittsburgh. I felt same sense of duty to get the story out there.”

In addition to working at The Ledger, Marino did stints at the Beaver County Times, the New Castle News and the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa. After a brief time as a city-side reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he joined the sports staff. There, he covered all the principal sports, among them: the Pirates, including the World Series; the Steelers, various National Football League games; Pitt and Penn State football; college bowl games; Pitt and Duquesne basketball, and the NCAA Basketball Tournament, and golf, professional and amateur.

Among the tournaments he covered for years: the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship, along with numerous other events, such as the Ryder Cup and the World Cup, all of which took him to Britain, Ireland, Spain, Italy, the Caribbean, South Africa, China, and Malaysia.

He won more than 20 national golf writing awards, and state and regional awards. He also has received the Masters Major Achievement Award, Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament Golf Journalism Award, and the PGA of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.

His writing has appeared in numerous publications, among them Sports Illustrated, Golf Digest and Golf Magazine, and in anthologies and foreign publications. He also has written the history of Oakmont Country Club.

Parascenzo is a former president of the Golf Writers Association of America and is on its board of directors and was the founder and chairman of the GWAA’s Journalism Scholarship Program. And he was an adjunct instructor in journalism at the University of Pittsburgh.

Parascenzo said the one accomplishment he is most proud of is not a newspaper story, not his time in the military, but finding the love of his life. The adoration for his wife is one that most human beings dream of. He married the former Leona Koziar, of Franklin Township, an honors graduate of Georgetown University, a masters graduate of Boston University, and holder of a doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh. She was a professor of nursing at Pitt and Duquesne University, and then at Slippery Rock University, where she became a dean.

“She is much smarter than me,” he said.

The couple has a daughter, Marina Brush, a lawyer in Seattle, and a granddaughter named Lily.

“I’ve had a great life, and I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve done,” he said.

If you’d like to learn more about Parascenzo, Tickets are still available by contacting the History Center.

About the dinner: Choice of Tuscan Stuffed Chicken Breast, Breaded Cod Piccata or Sirloin Medallions.  All dinners are $25,00.  Doors open at 5:30 pm and dinner is served at 6:30 pm. Presentation of awards will be made to Ellwood City Area “Champions on Parade” that have been nominated.