Raymond Joe Marek

Raymond Joe Marek, 90 of Caldwell passed away Monday morning at Brazos Valley Hospice Inpatient Facility in Bryan. Visitation is scheduled for Wednesday, April 2, 2014 from 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. at Memorial Funeral Chapel in College Station. Funeral Services are scheduled for 10:00 A.M. Thursday April 3, 2014 at the funeral home with Reverend Joseph Polasek officiating. Burial will be at New Tabor Cemetery in Burleson County, Texas.

He was born October 12, 1923 to Annie Fojt and Adolph Marek, in Tunis, Texas and attended school in both Tunis and Caldwell. After graduating from Caldwell High School, he left Caldwell and went to work at the Houston Ship Channel working on Tug Boats. In 1943 he worked at the Bryan Air Force Base as an Electrician Apprentice for Air Craft and farmed growing Cotton in the Brazos bottom. Besides being an Electrician and farmer, he worked as a mechanic at John Fojt Plymoth/Dodge in downtown Caldwell.

He met his wife Irene Hlavaty while working at the dealership and they were married on June 3, 1946. In 1951 he became an Air Craft Electrician and worked in this capacity until 1953. In 1958 the Bryan Air Force base was closed and he transferred to Cape Canaveral, Florida as an Electrical Technician for NASA. In 1971 he retired from N.A.S.A. and from 1972 to 1974 worked as a Maintenance Tech and Building Electrician for the Bureau of Fish and Wildlife Refuge at NASA. In 1975 thru ’76, he went back to work at the Kennedy Space Center Planning Research Corporation as an inspector. From 1977 thru ‘84 was a Kennedy Space Center Specialty Technician of Construction and Maintenance; from ‘85 thru ’86, Kennedy Space Center – Boeing Technician; 1987 he was Kennedy Space Center – Lockheed Space Shuttle Tile Technician; and from 1988 thru ‘97 he was the Kennedy Space Center Specialty Service Technician for the Space Shuttle Orbiter. In 1999 he was a substitute Teacher at Cocoa High School in Florida.

After living for 50 years in Cocoa, Florida he and his wife return to their hometown of Caldwell almost 50 years to the day they had left. Most recently resided at St. Joseph’s Manor Assisted Living in Bryan, Texas.

Raymond was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers, two sisters, and an 18 month old son, Raymond Joe Marek.

He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Irene (Hlavaty) Marek of Caldwell; four children, Ronald Marek and wife Nancy of Caldwell, Vivian Marie Boltz and husband Richard of Port Orange, Fla., Peggy Elaine Alder and husband Richard of Titusville, Fla, and Larry Ray Marek of Titusville, Fla.; ten grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces, nephews, and a host of friends.

Memorials may be given in memory of Raymond to Hospice Brazos Valley, 502 West 26th Street, Bryan, Texas 77803.