[1] His parents, Nicholas and Cecelia Rizzi Zechella, were Italian immigrants who settled in Newport, Kentucky, where he was born.
He played football and graduated in 1943, was commissioned an ensign and served on destroyers in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters during World War II.
Zechella utilized his engineering knowledge while he was in charge of construction projects at Navy bases in Alaska,[1][5] then served with the Seabees during the Korean War.
The completed plants were to be towed by ocean tugboats to their permanent locations, then anchored and protected by a massive concrete breakwater composed of 18,000 dolosses, each weighing 80 tons, designed to withstand hurricanes, tornadoes, moderate earthquakes and collision by a loaded tanker.
When four senior Charter executives were killed in a helicopter crash in 1982,[7] Zechella became company president and CEO, but retired at age 65 in 1985.
[1] Zechella was a golf enthusiast and a founding member of the Tournament Players Club; he served many years on the TPC Charities board.
He pushed for the building of the Nancy Reagan TPC Village, a facility to provide substance-abuse treatment for teenagers, then served as board chairman for several years.