Joseph Marino

MARINO, Joseph Anthony 75, died Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010, in Clearwater, of complications from late-stage adrenal-cortical cancer. Mr. Marino, Joe to his friends and family, was born in Washington, DC, in 1935, the elder son of Italian-American immigrants Nick and Lucia Marino. After spending much of his childhood in World War II in Italy, Marino returned to the Washington, DC area, attended, and graduated from St. John's College High School. He then attended the University of Notre Dame and the Notre Dame Law School. While there, he wrote for the Law Review. He graduated with a law degree in 1960, and went to work for the Federal Communications Commission. Mr. Marino's early work for the FCC included writing opinions, working as a Broadcast Bureau trial attorney, and serving as an appellate lawyer in the General Counsel's office. He took a year-long sabbatical for graduate studies in administrative law at the University of Chicago Law School in 1968. During this time, he represented a number of indigent defendants in criminal appeals before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He then returned to the Commission, where he was appointed head of the Litigation division by then-Chairman Dean Burch. He is remembered fondly by the junior litigators of the time for the monthly dinner parties held at his home, where he would invite a guest speaker to discuss one aspect of the law or another. Later, he served in other high profile positions such as Deputy Chief, and then Chief of the Common Carrier Bureau which oversaw the licensing and regulation of telephone and cellular telephone carriers, and Chairman of the FCC Review Board, which heard and judged appeals of all decisions made by the Administrative Law Judges at the FCC. Joseph's highest profile work for the FCC came in 1978, when he successfully argued the FCC's side of FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, commonly referred to as the George Carlin seven dirty words case, before the United States Supreme Court. In their decision, the Court upheld the FCC's right to regulate "indecent" speech broadcast over radio waves. Active in his parish of Ascension Catholic Church in Bowie, MD, Mr. Marino met his wife, Marian Lucille Mack, while serving as the director of the church's Catholic Christian Doctrine program. They were married in 1970 and moved to their home in Glenn Dale, MD. Their only child, Nicholas, was born in 1974. He remained active in the church throughout his years in Maryland. He retired from the FCC in June of 1997 and moved to Clearwater, where he was able to enjoy his life-long hobby of golf year-round. A family-oriented man, Mr. Marino cared for his mother until her death in 2002, at age 99. Always a charitable man, Joe donated his time to a soup kitchen in downtown Clearwater, and was active in All Saints Catholic Church's St. Vincent de Paul Society. A friend once dubbed him "a Christian thinker" to which others have added "he was a Christian doer." Mr. Marino is survived by his wife Marian Lucille (Lucy) and son Nicholas of Clearwater, and his brother Fausto of St. Leonard, MD. Mr. Marino's family would like to thank Suncoast Hospice for making Mr. Marino's final days comfortable and filled with dignity. A visitation will held from 5-7 pm at Curlew Hills Funeral Home on Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010. Funeral mass will be held at All Saints Catholic Church 2801 Curlew Rd. Clearwater, FL 33761 on Monday, Oct. 11, 2010, at 11 am. In lieu of flowers, donations should be made to either of the following organizations: Suncoast Hospice Foundation 5771 Roosevelt Blvd. Clearwater, FL 33760, St. Vincent de Paul Society c/o All Saints Catholic Church 2801 Curlew Rd. Clearwater, FL 33761