Once patient No. 1 in deadliest polio outbreak, Toms River man became an inspiration

Wytheville is a small town in western Virginia (population: 8,000), a longtime tourist stop situated at the nexus of two interstates.  

In the summer of 1950, the town’s leaders posted billboards on the outskirts that warned travelers, in essence: Don’t come here.

That’s because Wytheville was the epicenter of the nation’s deadliest per capita polio outbreak. More than 180 residents were infected and 17 died. The first known case was 2-year-old John Seccafico, whose family summarily moved back to their native New Jersey. For decades, no one in Wytheville knew what became of him.

Seccafico died last month in Toms River. He was 70 and had been paralyzed since that fateful summer. His passing was a big story in Wytheville, occasioning a two-photo spread on the local newspaper’s front page.

It's a story worth knowing because John Seccafico refused to let polio define him — an attitude that inspired countless others. Eventually, after a poignant return in 2000, that included the people of Wytheville.

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Beating the odds

In 1950 Jim Seccafico, John’s dad, was the second baseman for the Wytheville Statesmen, a popular minor-league baseball team and onetime affiliate of the St. Louis Browns (who later became the Baltimore Orioles). Young John was a regular around the ballpark until he fell ill.

“Doctors thought he wouldn’t survive but a few days,” said Alice Seccafico, John’s wife. “All he could do was move his eyes.”

The family moved back to New Jersey to lean on relatives for support. John eventually regained limited use of his arms. He went on to graduate from Seton Hall University and earn two master’s degrees. In a time when many buildings were not wheelchair-accessible, friends would carry him up and down flights of stairs so he could attend class.

Seccafico became a social worker, and for the past 19 years he was clinical supervisor at Ocean’s Harbor House, a Toms River nonprofit that aids at-risk youth.

“You never met someone with so much courage and resiliency,” executive director John Piscal said. “The guy never showed signs that he was having a bad day. And he was a master at his craft. He would advise the staff about strategies. The biggest thing you can do for a child, he would say, is to be demanding of them.”

Piscal once noticed Seccafico was cold in the office and offered to turn up the heat.

“He said, ‘No, just hand me a scarf,” Piscal said.

That was Seccafico’s way. He didn’t want anyone bending over backward for him.

“There is a lot of heartache here,” said Piscal, referring to the challenges faced by the young people at Harbor House. “John taught us to not allow the circumstances define who they could be. That is exactly how he lived his life.”

'A great healing'

As the years rolled by, Seccafico wondered what folks in Wytheville thought of him.

“He was afraid they would view him as this Typhoid Mary,” Alice Seccafico said. “There was a lack of understanding then about how polio was transmitted, and he was the one coming from up north with his family. We now know that he was in Wytheville when he caught it.”

Perhaps looking to exorcise some ghosts, Alice planned a trip to Wytheville in 2000. She invited John’s mother Lucille, who declined to join them.

“It was a painful, painful thing for her,” Alice said. “That changed the trajectory of their lives.”

John, Alice and their children went ahead with the trip. Fifty years to the day he was diagnosed, they returned. Alice had called ahead to alert town leaders, who organized a receiving party that included Ed Zuber, a teammate of John’s dad with the Statesmen. Local historian Frances Emerson was there, too.

“One of the touching things about it was, people here always felt like, ‘Whatever happened to him? I bet the family hates us,’ and he maybe grew up thinking he caused this, so it was a great healing for everybody,” Emerson said. “I don’t know anything else we’ve ever done has been that emotional and meaningful.”

Emerson runs multiple museums, and one of them includes a polio exhibit that mentions Seccafico — complete with a childhood photo.

“The visit was really cathartic, for him and for the town,” Alice Seccafico said.

Final tribute

John Seccafico continued working right up until his death from respiratory failure — a lingering effect of the polio. Piscal estimates he touched “thousands of people” through the years with his fighting spirit.

“He taught everyone, no matter what stands in your way, you can always achieve your dreams,” daughter Sarah Harper said.

“He always said, ‘Polio was the best thing that ever happened to me’ because he wouldn’t be who he was without it,” Alice Seccafico said.

The Wytheville Enterprise delivered the ultimate tribute in its front-page headline.

“Patient in polio epidemic dies,” reads the second line, under a first line that uses all capital letters: “A life of overcoming obstacles.”

Carino’s Corner appears Mondays in the Asbury Park Press. Contact Jerry at jcarino@gannettnj.com