Benjamin George Marcin

Dec. 25, 1920 — Feb. 21, 2012

Ben was born Dec. 25, 1920 in Balbieriskis, Lithuania to Stanley and Anna Marcinkevicius.

The family immigrated to Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1922, slipping across the border from Canada. Early in catholic school, the nuns clipped his name, which his father accepted gladly.

Ben graduated from Brooklyn Tech High School in 1939, received his Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) and was a Fellow in the engineering department. He worked for a short time with the Pennsylvania Railroad until drafted into the Army in 1944.

It was in the U.S. Army that Ben was made a U.S. citizen. The Army sent 2nd Lt. Marcin to the University of Illinois where he acquired his second Bachelor of Science degree, in sanitation engineering.

Ben’s love for Anne may well have started when they were first introduced at age five by the Kulis and Marcin families. Their next meeting was in 1939, while Anne was at Queens College in Flushing, N.Y. This meeting was to be the one that sealed their bond, with Ben proposing on Valentine’s Day, 1944 and married Dec. 8, 1945.

Ben sailed to Europe in February of 1946 and returned that same year. Their daughter, Carol Ann, was born Dec. 28, 1948.

Ben began his long career as an engineer with the M.W. Kellogg Company in 1947. He was to work for Kellogg until 1983.

During his career he traveled through four continents and many of the Pacific island nations. He held a professional engineers license in all but 10 of the states and also holds a U.S. patent, which are just a very few of his other professional accomplishments.

Ben’s talents were not only professional; he was an avid wood turner, made his own furniture and loved new gadgets of all kinds. However, his primary love was as the exclusive chauffeur for Anne, driving her wherever she wished to go; choral practices, painting classes, church.

He loved to see her enjoying her many talents and endeavors, and would take her and go get her, or frequently just stay to listen and enjoy the voice he loved so much. Ben spent his life in love of Anne and their families, working to provide the best he could give them and to his daughter.

While Ben was a quiet man and most comfortable around his family, he was not timid and would speak his mind on many subjects.

Ben Marcin worked for a dream for Anne, Carol, Tom and himself, and saw that through to the end on Orcas Island, in the home that he built and which he loved.

— Family of Benjamin Marcin

— Editor’s note: A memorial service is Feb. 29, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., at St. Francis Catholic Church, in Eastsound, with a reception to follow at the senior center, in Eastsound