Pat Cherry's life commenced in 1951 within the charming confines of Emporium, Pennsylvania, a town steeped in Italian immigrant heritage. However, his arrival into this world was marked by a remarkable and precarious start, as he was born weighing a mere 1 pound 2 ounces, a birth weight that was undoubtedly influenced by the far-reaching and profound consequences of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, an event that his father had the misfortune of witnessing firsthand. As a survivor of the ill-fated USS Indianapolis, Pat Cherry's father had been present in Hiroshima at the time of the catastrophic event, leaving an indelible and lasting impact on the family's history, a legacy that would forever shape the trajectory of Pat Cherry's life.
