Rocco Vesper was born in Camden NJ on May 9, 1910 to Dominico and Josefina Vesper, one of at least seven children. His mother died shortly before the 1930 Census was taken. The Vesper family resided 326 Mickle Street, two doors away from the famous poet Walt Whitman's home at 330 Mickle, when both the 1920 and 1930 Census were enumerated..

During the 1930s Rocco Vesper pursued a variety of vocations. He managed professional boxers for a time. By the late 1930s he was the proprietor of a taproom known as Vesper's Cafe, at 15 South 4th Street, on the opposite side of the street from the Henry and Leon Cooperson's auto body shop.

In May of 1942, Rocco Vesper and his childhood friend John Creato were drafted into the armed forces. Dominico Vesper operated the bar while Rocco Vesper served his country. 
Rocco Vesper returned after the war, as did John Creato. The Creato family also got into the bar business, operating Creato's Cafe at South 5th and Mickle Streets in the late 1940s. John Creato managed the bar, and Rocco Vesper would tend bar here as well.  

Rocco Vesper had moved to Pennsauken by 1959, where he lived out his days, passing away in August of 1978.