Giovanni Manzocco

Gino Cimbaro, Giovanni Manzocco, Arrigo Cimbaro, 1958

Giovanni (John) Ferruccio Manzocco immigrated to Kelowna in 1951, at the calling of his uncle John Butt.  He was born in 1926 in Sediliis, Udine, Italy. He apprenticed, for two years, at his uncle's shoe repair shop.  He lived on Bertram Street for one year and then bought a home on Oxford Avenue.

In 1954, he went to work for CP Rail in Field, BC.  There, John worked on maintaining the tunnel  system of Kicking Horse Pass, in particular the famous spiral tunnels.  He left the railway in the early 1960s, and returned to Italy.  It was not to be a permanent stay,  however,  and by 1965 John had returned to the Okanagan and took a position at the Highland Bell Mine in Beaverdell.  He remained working there until his retirement.

John purchased a home on Pandosy Street when he retired.  He never married and did not have any children.  He was a kind man with a very gentle and giving nature.  John was known as a very hard worker and a jack-of-all-trades.  He was one of the founders of the Kelowna Canadian Italian Club.

John died in 1994 and is laid to rest at the Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery.

Mary Anna Cimbaro, cousin