Offstage Husband

She gets upset when people call me Mr. Ferraro," says Gerry's husband John Zaccaro, 51, "but I get a kick out of it." That reaction is in character. After 24 years of marriage, the Brooklyn-born Zaccaro has adapted to a self-effacing role as the proud and supportive husband of a very modern woman.

An ex-Marine with a boyish face and the beginning of a paunch, Zaccaro quit Fordham Law School before gaining a degree to enter his father's successful real estate business, Paul Zaccaro Co., Inc. Acting on behalf of a wealthy client, the company tried to purchase the Empire State Building in New York City during the 1950s. That bid failed, and the since concentrated on lucrative commercial properties in Lower Manhattan, including Greenwich Village. "I still have to work for a living," says Zaccaro. "My life has been the real estate business. I've always loved it. The thrill is to get two people to agree on a deal. And then the culmination is to take a check to the bank." Away from work, he relaxes on a motorboat docked on Long Island Sound; he also has season tickets for New York Rangers hockey games.

In typical husbandly fashion, Zaccaro recalls that he was angry at first when his wife decided in 1974 to go to work for Cousin Nick as a Queens County assistant district attorney. Not so typically, though, he adds: "I've changed a lot. You've got to be fair. She did everything I asked before and there are certain things in life you have to accept." Besides, says he, "it all worked out for the better."

When Ferraro is away from their two-story, Tudor-style home in Queens, she telephones her husband several times each day. He accompanies the Congresswoman at public functions in her congressional district. His rationale: "People would wonder if she were there alone." Accustomed by now to most political rituals, he has occasionally been outraged by politically inspired innuendos about his wife. Just before Ferraro's selection was announced last week, he said, "I just hope it doesn't get nasty."

When Ferraro first took up her post in Washington, it was Zaccaro who attempted to commute from New York City so the couple could spend evenings together in her studio apartment. But he soon decided to stay at home, because, as he recalls, "she only had a little studio and the sound of the refrigerator kept me awake all night." He insisted that she do the commuting, and she agreed, returning home each Thursday evening during congressional sessions. "My parents are so in love with each other it is sickening," says Daughter Donna. When they first heard serious speculation that their mother might become the vice-presidential candidate, the children began calling their father "the First Man."

If his wife actually became Vice President, Zaccaro says, he would remain in Queens and concentrate on his business, rather than move to Washington. Says he: "She does her thing and I do mine. If she wins, we'll work out something just as we have for the last six years. Same old stuff."