John Gerald Marren

Beloved husband, father, brother, grandfather, friend, and printer, John Gerald Marren was born on August 8, 1933 in the Bronx, NYC to Irish Immigrants Margaret Fitzgerald and Thomas Marren. John grew up Catholic, but attended any church that struck his father’s fancy on a given Sunday.

At the age of 12, the family moved to “the country,” Stanford, Connecticut. After graduating from Stanford H.S. (where he had declared he wanted to be a television repair man), he enlisted in the Air Force and served from 1951 to 1954 as a RADAR technician.

John attended the University of Connecticut on the G.I. Bill, got his degree in electrical engineering, and met the love of his life, Joanne Lowry. They married in Sept. of 1958.

After working for the Norden Division of United Aircraft in Connecticut, John embraced the prospect of not shoveling snow by moving his young family, now with two toddlers, to Miami in 1963. There he worked for the stock market analysis firm, Lowry Reports. With few prospects for advancement at Lowry, John began searching for a business of his own and landed on printing, establishing his first print shop in Miami, “Bird Road Kwik Print.”

In Miami, John was active in St. Louis Catholic Church and became a Knight of Columbus and attended a Cursillo weekend that made his Catholic faith even more meaningful.

Now with a transportable trade, John and Joanne, now with 4 children, moved to Ocala in 1973, where he started Concord Print Shop. It was the first quick print business in Ocala. Concord has had to adapt to changes in technology and the market, but is still going strong. John sold the business to his youngest son, Bill, in 2004 yet continued to help out, delivering 70 lb boxes of paper, well into his 80s.

John has always been active in his church community, Blessed Trinity. He was involved in many ministries. He ran his Ultreya group. He helped with Walk to Emaus, an inter-Faith experience that would affect so many in our community and around the state. The prison ministry, Kairos, in particular was dear to him. As he worked with so many inmates, he got to know some individuals over time and gave a few of them a starting place with a job at the print shop.

In the later years John has remained active with Brother’s Keeper Soup Kitchen. He was their best pot washer. He loved his Wednesday Crew and Sister Concepta.

John loved so much about his life. He enjoyed camping, painting, sketching, gardening, and woodworking. In his later years, he spent more and more time in his beautiful back yard gardening. He enjoyed watching UCONN basketball and the Gators play anything. He loved to travel with Joanne particularly back to Ireland to meet his cousins. He enjoyed searching his roots and getting to know his lovely family there.

He loved getting his whole family together in interesting places. For over twenty years John and Joanne traveled to North Carolina to join family and good friends and to escape the Florida summer heat for a bit. They always rented the same place, “Sweet Potato Pie” where invariably, John would find some project to help maintain the place. He has always been the first to step up to help with any project.

Oldest son Tom building a log home? John was there every weekend for over a year to help.

Next son, Mike, needs a second-floor deck? Fly to Chicago and scramble up and down scaffolding like a kid.

Daughter Jenny needs a pergola built over her hot tub in Salt Lake City? He came up with the specs and flew out to show her how to build it. A big endeavor and he might have broken his foot!

Youngest son Bill, the printer, made up a constant stream of projects for him, just to be together.

John loved his family, friends and his life in Ocala. He was a quiet, gentle man of kindness who enjoyed helping others. He was a leader. He was a hard worker. He was funny and fun-loving yet humble.

John is preceded in death by his parents Margaret Fitzgerald and Thomas Marren and his sister Helen Clauss. He is survived by his wife Joanne, three sons, Thomas (m. Veronica Szarszewski), Michael (m. Elise Meyer), and William (m. Lisa Cordova), one daughter, Jennifer (m. Richard McDonald, PhD). He was blessed with nine grandchildren, Nicholas and Zoe McDonald, Thomas, Megan (e. Steven Sonnentag), Isaac (m. Maggie Dominy), Maria, Helen, Logan and Wesley Marren. He has two great grandchildren, Eleanor and Maebh Marren.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to Brothers’ Keeper to help continue their ministry.

There will be a viewing on Friday, October 25 th , 6:15 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. and a funeral mass on Saturday, October 26 th , 1:00 p.m. 

The funeral will be livestreamed on Blessed Trinity’s web page while it is happening. However, it will not be saved for viewing later. Go to blessedtrinity.org to find the livestream.