Alexander Philip "Zeke" Zechella was a United States Navy veteran and pioneer in the usage of nuclear energy who headed several major companies before retiring in Jacksonville, Florida, and assisting local non-profit agencies.
Early years
His parents, Nicholas and Cecelia Rizzi Zechella, were Italian immigrants who settled in Newport, Kentucky, where he was born. He excelled at both academics and athletics and graduated from Newport High School in 1938 as class president. He wanted to become a doctor and received a football scholarship to the University of Kentucky. During his first year there, he realized he could not pay for medical school, so he secured an appointment to the United States Naval Academy. While at Annapolis, Zechella married his longtime sweetheart, Jean Millicent Bary, on June 24, 1942. 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. His first assignment was assistant engineering officer on the. His son Bary Alexander was born in 1944. When the war ended, he was executive officer of the. He remained in the Navy and earned a master's degree in civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1948. His first daughter, Pamela Lynn, was born when the family was stationed in Long Beach, California. Zechella utilized his engineering knowledge while he was in charge of construction projects at Navy bases in Alaska, then served with the Seabees during the Korean War.
Zechella began serving as president of Offshore Power Systems in 1972 when plant construction began. OPS was a 1970 joint venture between Westinghouse and Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock, who had recently merged with Tenneco. Their goal was to build floating nuclear power plants from a facility at Jacksonville, Florida. The completed plants were to be towed by ocean tugboats to their permanent locations, then anchored and protected by a massive concrete breakwatercomposed of 18,000 dolosses, each weighing 80 tons, designed to withstand hurricanes, tornadoes, moderate earthquakes and collision by a loaded tanker. However, outside forces seemed to conspire against it. A combination of nuclear regulations and no license, questions about the safety of nuclear power, the 1973 oil crisis, the 1973–75 recession and escalating costs caused the failure of the endeavor. A frustrated Zechella left OPS and retired as a Westinghouse vice president in 1980 after 27 years at the company. Offshore Power Systems finally shut down in 1984.
Charter
In 1980, Zechella was hired by the Charter Company, a Jacksonville conglomerate and Fortune 500 company. When four senior Charter executives were killed in a helicopter crash in 1982, Zechella became company president and CEO, but retired at age 65 in 1985.
Retirement
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. He was a partner in the Environmental Recovery Group at Mayport, a trustee of Jacksonville University, and helped found the St. Vincent's Foundation of St. Vincent's Hospital in Jacksonville. He also served on the board of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. In his final years, he suffered from Parkinson's disease and died at age 89.
