Mary Blanche Zrog Zacchea, 76, died on April 25, after a long illness. She was born in Richmond Hill to an Irish mother and a Danish father. After marrying, she lived in Kew Gardens, Forest Hills and Rochester, before finally settling in Floral Park in 1965.
After graduating from Richmond Hill High School, she attended St. John’s University, the SUNY and Nassau Community College. Her academic interest was psychology, her avocation was art. She was an avid traveler, having visited more than 25 countries.
Mary was an accountant, working first on Wall Street, then for the Jamaica Water Supply Company (now known as Water Authority of Western Nassau County), and then to U.S. Life Title. After retiring from U.S. Life Title, her and her husband entered the U.S. Foreign Service and relocated to Saudi Arabia. While in Saudi Arabia she was appointed to the United States Saudi Arabia Joint Commission for Economic Development, working in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia.
After returning from Saudi Arabia, she partnered with her husband in their consulting business. She was also a partner in an upscale restaurant in Chicago, which she considered quite natural in that her Danish family was restaurateurs in Denmark and her Irish family hoteliers in Ireland.
She is survived by her husband of 55 years Nicholas, her three children, Patrick (Linda), Kevin (Tamara), and Mary Jane (Bernard) and six grandchildren, Sarah, Rachel, Abigail, Kevin, Nicholas and Owen.
While her children were young, Mary was active in many Floral Park organizations. She was a member of the Junior Women’s Club; she coached girls’ soccer, was a Girl Scout leader, served as a librarian at Our Lady of Victory School and was active in the OLV Parent’s Club.
More recently, Mary was a member of the parents’ club at Chaminade High School and a member and officer of the OLV Rosary Altar Society.
A wake was held at Thomas F. Dalton Funeral Home in Floral Park and a Mass of Resurrection was celebrated by Father Brian Barr, assisted by Father Thomas Fusco at Our Lady of Victory R. C. Church. Interment was at Mount Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Flushing.
