Virginia Marino

VIRGINIA C. MARINO

August 18, 1934 – June 4, 2024

Devoted wife and loving mother and grandmother, Virginia Marino, passed away peacefully at Staten Island University Hospital North on the evening of June 4th. Known to her friends and family as “Ginny,” she was born in Brooklyn to Claire and Charles Ploch. Virginia’s German American family originally settled in New York City in 1850. Her great-grandfather was a prominent artist and lithographer whose work can be found in the Library of Congress. He was also the Founder and President of the Artists, Engravers & Designers League, an international organization for which her grandfather, an artist and writer, also later served as President. Both her great-grandfather and her grandfather were well-regarded portraitists for people of note as well as American Presidents and other national figures. Her grandfather’s revolutionary three-color lithograph of President Taft is part of the National Gallery Collection in Washington, D.C.

Both Virginia’s great-grandfather and grandfather also served as Presidents of the New York Republican League and Presidents of the Turn Verein Society, an athletic and social club, in Brooklyn. Her grandfather was instrumental in having gymnasiums installed in the New York City public schools and also promoted music education as President of the Brooklyn Saengerbund, which preserved and promoted German culture through music, particularly choral singing. He was also the author and illustrator of the “Old Timers” Column for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, World Telegram and The Brooklyn Sun, which reviewed historical places and events in the city. Her grandmother was the President of the Ladies’ Auxiliary of Kensington, a prominent women’s social and philanthropic organization. Additionally, her family, including her mother (WWI, Yeomanette, U.S. Navy, Brooklyn Navy Yard & Ellis Island), aunts, uncles and cousins voluntarily served in various branches of the American military during the world wars.

Instilled with her family’s values of education, public service, national pride, the love of art and music and a strong work ethic, Virginia was an exceptional student. She was accepted to the prestigious Girl’s Commercial High School in Prospect Heights and then the Brooklyn College School of Business. A talented singer and lover of music, she also studied both voice and piano. Her career began at the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and following that she worked in the influential News Division of the King Features Syndicate founded by William Randolph Hearst. Both were located in Manhattan.

In 1956, she moved with her parents from Sheepshead Bay to Dyker Heights in Bay Ridge where she met and married Louis Marino in 1958, after converting from her family’s Episcopalian faith to become a Roman Catholic. They continued to live in Dyker Heights until the opening of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 1964. Shortly after, they built their home in Great Kills and moved into it in 1965 along with Virginia’s parents. They joined the parish of St. Clare’s where Virginia later sang in the choir. Along with Louis, she raised their three daughters and ultimately returned to college, registering at Staten Island Community College in 1973 to complete the degree she had begun at Brooklyn College. She was a regular on the Dean’s List and graduated with honors and an Applied Sciences Degree in Accounting.

After graduation, her professional career resumed in the insurance and accounting fields. In the late seventies, she notably worked at General Adjustment Bureau (GAB), where she worked on the claims and recovery related to the February 1977 Ethel H tanker collision and Exxon oil spill near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, one of the most significant environmental disasters in the history of New York Harbor. Following her years at GAB, she worked at DeSantis, Kiefer & Shall, the prominent Staten Island accounting firm, and from there joined the private offices of Ignazio A. Piedilato, CPA, from which she retired in 1997. During this time, she also joined the effort to have more of Staten Island’s natural landscapes preserved, joining the committee which successfully secured preservation status for the twenty-two-acre King Fisher Park & Pond in Great Kills, among other wetlands and wildlife sanctuaries.

Virginia was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan and then a New York Yankees fan. She was an avid reader of classic literature and complex murder mysteries and passed along her love of books to her children and grandchildren. She also enjoyed writing and mastering the creative textile arts of sewing, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, and lacemaking, which she found relaxing and satisfying. Travel was also something she loved and valued. Upon retirement, she and Louis traveled more extensively, spending time in Great Britain, France, and Italy. A lifelong lover of the ocean, she even took a surfing lesson at Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii. Together she and Louis cruised to Alaska and then to the Baltics where they spent time in St. Petersburg and visited The Hermitage. They also traveled frequently within the mainland United States. Their last trip abroad together was taken aboard the Queen Mary II, cruising through the Caribbean, on the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anniversary.

In her later years, Virginia preferred to enjoy her home, go swimming at the Great Kills Swim Club and care for her three grandchildren of whom she was extremely proud and to whom she gave her unlimited attention and her wisdom for living a happy life, which included being curious and courageous, to persevere and to have faith. She demonstrated her faith with prayer, unwavering belief and by becoming a Columbiette of the Knights of Columbus Stolzenthaler Council No. 1675 in Tottenville.

She will be greatly missed by her friends and her surviving family: her beloved husband of sixty-six years, Louis Marino, her daughters, and sons-in-law: Grace V. Mattei, Esq. and the Honorable Mario F. Mattei, Claire T. Marino Rizzo and Albert Rizzo, Esq., and Virginia (Ginger) and Alan Miller. She leaves behind a legacy of love, generosity, good humor, kindness, and cherished memories to her grandchildren: Alana Mattei, Esq., Aria C. Rizzo, and Alexander Miller.

In lieu of flowers the family suggests that a donation be made to the New York Public Library in Virginia’s name:

https://secure.nypl.org/site/Donation2?

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word

and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.”

-John 5:24