Home | Optimist Club of Reno - Ray Pezonella Memorial Golf Tournament

2023 Tournament

Join Us:

For the second
Annual
Ray Pezonella Memorial Golf Tournament,
Promoting Duty to Community

Date: June 2, 2023

Place: Red Hawk Golf & Resort -
6600 N Wingfield Pkwy, Sparks, NV

Purpose: Fundraiser for Optimist Club of Reno,
to benefit local area youth

Price: $150/p/p
(includes a round of golf, golf cart and lunch)

Click on the play button below to see our :15 second Public Service Announcement (PSA)

About Ray Pezonella

Reno - Raymond Michael Pezonella was born on September 18, 1948 in San Francisco, California and passed away on May 16, 2021 at Renown Hospital in Reno, Nevada. He graduated from UNR with a degree in civil engineering and was married to his sweetheart Nancy for 53 years. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather.
Ray was a man of faith, strong in his convictions and a great humanitarian. But perhaps his greatest pleasures in life were raising his four children, spending time spoiling his nine grandchildren and watching them all play sports, even if it was a video when he was not able to attend in person. He was a successful businessman owning his own engineering firm, Pezonella and Associates, for more than 40 years before finally retiring in 2019.
Ray attended the Trinity Episcopal Church and never met an organization he did not want to be involved with or in charge of. He had a great compassion for those who were less fortunate and he firmly believed in always giving back to your community. While Ray was a member of too many organizations and clubs to list individually, he was most heavily involved with the Lions Club, EAR and Optimist Club of Reno holding all club offices all the way to District Governors.
He had a love of animals, sports and the youth. He had a special love for football, both as a fan of the Oakland Raiders and as a coach, coaching teams from Pop Warner all the way to high school as well as the semi-pro team, the Pyro Pigs. He made many contributions to the community including lights for several local football fields and many park improvements through his work with the Lions Club. The community is a better place because of Ray and his charitable service.
Ray also "moonlighted" as a chauffeur driving the bus with 45 eager campers heading to Camp Dat So La Lee every summer in the beautiful Ruby Mountains outside of Elko, Nevada; to Point Bonita, California for the 8th graders of St. Albert's Catholic School; and for Spanish Springs Cougars football and also coaching them to many victories.
He was truly a larger than life man who had the gift of making you feel safe, important and loved. He had a soft spot for children and was always involved with something that was helping them. Once you met Ray you were a friend for life. This was experienced by many of the exchange students his family hosted from Italy that he still kept in touch with.
Ray was happiest when he was helping others and he always had a word of encouragement. He might be best known for his incredible work ethic, his large heart and ever present mustache. When he would DJ events he was known as "The Big Bopper" and his love of music was a lifelong passion.
Ray loved spending time with family and friends and this included time on his boat and in his Beech Craft Baron airplane enjoying God's wonders. Ray is survived by his wife Nancy and children Michael (wife Kim and sons Niko and Jake), Rayann (husband Tod and sons Raymond and Matthew), Christina (husband Mark and daughter Abigail) and Julie (husband Wesley and sons Weston, Lucas and Quinton and daughter Olivia) as well as several in-laws, nieces and nephews.