Jack Dello Iaconno
2005
Jack was born on October 23, 1925 on the Italian passenger liner S.S. Conte Rosso as his parents were leaving Genoa, Italy to move to the United States. Jack was raised in Brooklyn, New York and attended St. John’s University. He then went on to Pennsylvania State University for his engineering degree.
His engineering experience included Combustion Engineering of New York, NY, and American Machine and Foundry of Stamford, CT, for whom he designed ground support equipment for the U.S. Space Program, including the C5 Crawler, the Lunar Excursion Module, the Assembly Building, and the Titan Missile Silo.
Jack Dello Iaccono was one of the earliest pioneers in developing wheelchair sports in Central Pennsylvania. He coached wheelchair track & field, swimming, archery, and weight lifting in his hometown of Camp Hill. He developed the wheelchair sports team in central Pennsylvania, The Penn Chariot Racers.
He was always involved as a volunteer, often spending his own resources to travel internationally to serve as a coach for Team USA. He served in this capacity from 1967–1987. Jack was a member of the Team USA staff on teams that went to England, Austria, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City and Toronto. In addition, he took his Penn Chariot Racers team to competitions in nearly all 50 states. Together with Charlie Ryder, he helped with the founding of the Pennsylvania Wheelchair Athletic Association.
Jack also served as an equipment manager on these trips. He was always willing to share tools, an air tank for tires or teach wheelchair maintenance. Jack was always willing to work with new coaches to ensure that their athletes were getting the best quality coaching possible. He also worked to develop quality officials by providing instruction and training.
Jack’s contributions to the development of wheelchair sports and competitions in Pennsylvania were unsurpassed.