For his 90th birthday, Wedgewood Pizza’s Fernando Riccioni receives the ‘key to the township’

AUSTINTOWN — Township Trustee Jim Davis said officials had pretty much run out of accolades to bestow on Fernando Riccioni.

The longtime owner of Wedgewood Pizza not only helped build the 53-year locally owned pizza chain — whose Brier Hill-style pie has earned national recognition — but has also helped build his community.

And for that, trustees handed him the "key to the township" during his 90th birthday celebration at the Austintown eatery.

The Austintown pizza shop closed Wednesday to pass out free pizza and drinks to Riccioni's birthday well-wishers. Led by police escort, Riccioni met them with a big smile, said his daughter Filomena. It might have been a little overwhelming for the 90-year-old, but in a "good" way, she said.

"It was just so awesome to see," she said. "I think it might have been more enjoyable for all of us."

Riccioni on Wednesday was named an honorary member of the township police department and also received a firefighter's helmet signed by the entire township fire department. The nameplate read "Papa Fernando." The parks department also unveiled a new township park bench with Riccioni's name on it at Stacy Pavilion.

Davis said Riccioni is preceded by his reputation for philanthropy — giving out free pies to those in need.

"There hasn't been a time where a baseball team, a footbal team ... some kind of organization that needed donations — and he and his family haven't donated to the Austintown community," he said. "How do you honor somebody who's given so much to the community ... and really has everything? We've given him proclamations before. He's already in the Austintown Hall of Fame.

"What more can you give the guy? He's already got the key to our hearts. Why not give him the key to the township?"

Riccioni married Filomena's Italian American mother and emigrated to the U.S. in 1960, at 30 years old. He never passed beyond the third grade. He and his father shepherded to feed their family during World War II.

Filomena said her father has never been the type to keep his good fortunes for himself — a patron to panhandlers. "If you have it and you could give it, you should always give it," she said.

"It's been important to my father because he came to this country — and now, more than ever, people should know that this country ... gave the opportunity for a third-grade-educated man," Filomena said.

"He appreciates life. He appreciates food. ... He comes over to this country with the abundance of what it had" — jobs, she said.

Riccioni couldn't get enough of them, Filomena said. He washed dishes; washed cars; worked on a rail line; painted "half the houses in Austintown" as well as a church mosaic on Glenwood Avenue. He learned English at 32 years old by taking night classes, she said.

Riccioni got into the pizza business "by accident," Filomena said. He'd been turned down for a General Motors job because of a hand injury. At the time, a family friend was looking to partner for a pizza business. They originally wanted to partner with Fernando's brother-in-law, but he passed it up.

"[Fernando] built it way before TV, way before advertisement," Filomena said. "He built it with the product, with the food — word of mouth."

And Filomena said she's proud of not just the business legacy, but the community legacy.

"He never refused people when they came in the door," she said. "The Austintown community has watched out for my dad and our business and the Wedgewood family like there was no tomorrow.

"They do that to everybody. If you were good to the community, and you're a good person, you get back. They watch out for you."

This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 5:30 AM with the headline "For his 90th birthday, Wedgewood Pizza’s Fernando Riccioni receives the ‘key to the township’."