Renzo Perdoni

Renzo “Rock” Perdoni

Renzo “Rock” Perdoni, 78, of Newborn, Georgia, passed away on June 15, 2026, on his tractor, in his fields, on his farm, doing what he loved, just as he always said he would.

Rock was born on December 10, 1947, on a farm in Gazzola, Italy, the eighth and youngest child of Guido and Gemma Perdoni. At the age of six, he immigrated with his family to Wellesley, Massachusetts, where he made lifelong friendships, discovered football, and began becoming the larger-than-life person so many would come to know and love.

It was in Wellesley that Renzo became “Rock,” a nickname given to him by a football coach who had trouble pronouncing his Italian name. The name stuck, and it suited him: strong, steady, unforgettable, and impossible to miss. He also earned coveted membership in the rough-and-tumble HOGS street gang, a childhood brotherhood that became part of the mythology of his early life and one of the many stories he would tell for decades.

After high school, Rock was recruited to Ferrum College in Virginia. Under the guidance of his beloved Coach Norton, he helped lead Ferrum to the Junior College National Championship in 1968. That success paved the way for his next chapter as a defensive tackle for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

During his first season at Georgia Tech, Rock’s life changed in three profound ways. His father, Guido, passed away while watching him play in Atlanta. He lost nine Ferrum teammates and coaches in the Marshall University plane crash. And in the midst of a season marked by both promise and heartbreak, he was introduced on a blind date to Emaline Kelly, the woman who would become the love of his life.

Rock’s accomplishments on the football field were extraordinary. He was a Lombardi Award finalist, a consensus All-American, a Playboy All-American, and was later inducted into the Georgia Tech Football Hall of Fame. He went on to play professionally in the Canadian Football League for five seasons. Yet Rock would have been the first to say that his greatest honor was not earned on a football field. It was being Emaline’s husband for 52 fun, loving, devoted, and remarkable years.

Rock and Emaline were married in 1973 and built a life defined by love, noise, humor, loyalty, and an open door. They eventually settled in Sherborn, Massachusetts, close to Rock’s hometown and large Italian family, where they raised their four children. Their home at 67 Ivy Lane became the center of countless cookouts, family parties, neighborhood gatherings, and childhood memories.

Rock and Emaline shared the kind of marriage that made people want to be near them. Their warm and wild household was a magnet for treasured friends, family, and guests. Rarely was there not a car in the driveway that wasn’t their own- always a friend visiting. There was music playing, singing, dancing, chaos, and dinner served around an enormous round table at 8 p.m. or later. The warmth their marriage created drew people in for decades.

For their children, nieces, nephews, neighbors, and friends, 67 Ivy Lane was a place of enormous energy and endless possibility. Rock was famous for elaborate and often age-inappropriate pranks, treasure hunts, and legendary ghost stories told in the dark by the light of a single candle. Children gathered around his enormous presence, waiting to hear what would happen next.

Storytelling was Rock’s superpower. He had the rare ability to take many threads, many characters, and many memories, and weave them into one unforgettable stream. If Rock was telling a story, no matter the setting, a crowd would gather. Whether you had heard the story 20 times or had just met him in the grocery store, it was always worth stopping to listen. There would be humor, there would be drama, there would almost certainly be a detour through Italy, Georgia Tech, or Sherborn, and there would always be a lesson.

Rock owned Perdoni Bros. Construction and worked with an ethic rarely seen. He worked hard to provide for his family, but he was never absent from the life he was building. He coached sports, taught Sunday School, fished before school on Farm Pond with his children, and remained an active, present, and beloved pillar in their lives. His children knew him as a constant source of strength, wisdom, humor, and unconditional love. He never ended a conversation without affirmations of his pride.

Everyone knew Rock. Everyone loved Rock.

Upon retirement, Rock fulfilled a lifelong dream. He and Emaline left Sherborn for Newborn, Georgia, to be closer to Emaline’s family. There, he bought a farmhouse and acreage, bringing his life full circle back to his days as a boy on a farm in Italy. He grew grapes, made wine of varying quality, tended a fruit orchard, fenced in the property, and regularly threatened his family with the possibility of raising cattle.

Little Pond Farm became one of the great joys of Rock’s later life. Coming to harvest grapes there was an experience unto itself. Rock threw himself into small-town Southern life and was warmly welcomed into the community, even joining the local volunteer fire department for a short stint before accidentally setting a brush fire in his field and being demoted to truck washer on the squad.

Rock and Emaline shared 15 wonderful and peaceful years on the farm. It became a beloved place for their 10 grandchildren, who came to catch catfish, hear stories by the fire pit, and ride go-karts through the fields. His grandchildren knew him as the keeper of mysteries, adventures, and impossible tales. They remained ever curious about the Wildman in the woods and the Gorilla in the basement. There was never a dull moment with Rock as your grandfather.

To know Rock was to be welcomed into the story.

He possessed a rare gift for making everyone feel like family. Whether you had known him for fifty years or five minutes, he pulled you into the circle with a booming laugh, a grin so big his eyes closed, and a story that somehow started in Italy, detoured through Georgia Tech, involved three people you had never met with funny nicknames, and ended with something that made you a better person.

Rock lived boldly, loved fiercely, and never did anything halfway. He was a devoted husband, a proud father, an endlessly entertaining grandfather, a loyal friend, and a man who worked harder than anyone around him. He believed life was meant to be shared: around a dinner table, on a fishing bank, riding through a field, or gathered around a fire listening to stories that grew richer with each telling.

From a farm in Italy to football fields across America, from construction sites to his beloved Little Pond Farm, Rock embraced every chapter of his life with gratitude, energy, and joy. He left this world exactly as he hoped he would: on his tractor, in his fields, under an open sky. It was a fitting final page for a man who never stopped moving, never stopped doing what he loved, and never stopped loving the people around him.

Rock is survived by the love of his life, Emaline; his four children, Emily Ware and her husband, Nic, Katie Perdoni, Matthew Perdoni and his wife, Olivia, and Abby Wright and her husband, Dave; his 10 grandchildren, Gemma, Renzo, Matthew, Augustus, Thompson, Emaline, George, Evangeline, Benjamin and his sister, Bruna Byrne.

He was welcomed into heaven by his parents, Guido and Gemma; his beloved granddaughter, Vivian, his six siblings; and numerous teammates and friends from the many chapters of his life. His family imagines a crowd already gathering to hear the stories of an earthbound life incredibly well lived.

The measure of a life is not found only in awards, titles, or accomplishments, but also in the lives touched along the way. By that measure, Rock’s life was extraordinary.

His stories may have ended, but the laughter, lessons, traditions, and love he created will continue to be told for generations to come.

Celebrations of Life information will follow. Rock’s family plans to celebrate him in Atlanta and in the Boston area. Details will be shared as they develop.

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