Romilio Rome Marinelli

1928 - 2021

(News Story)
Brooks Sutherland
Blade Staff Writer


Romilio Marinelli, an Italian immigrant and U.S. Navy veteran who had a long and successful career as an automobile financier, died Wednesday at Kingston Care Center in Sylvania. He was 92.

He had complications from dementia, his son, Vincent Marinelli, said.

Known by many of his peers as "Rome," the elder Mr. Marinelli came to Toledo in 1963.

While working for General Motors Acceptance Corp., otherwise known as GMAC, he was recruited by a bank service company, Yegen & Associates, which had just picked up a contract with First National Bank of Toledo.

Under Yegen, Mr. Marinelli was tasked with helping new partner First National Bank of Toledo grow its business in the areas of auto lending and automobile financing.

"When my Dad came here [Toledo], Yegen didn't have an office, it was just my Dad," Vincent Marinelli said. "Even though his office was located there, he was never employed by the bank. He was actually employed by Yegen, but his philosophy was 'Hey if I promote the bank, and get business for the bank, I'll get my cut of the action.'"

His philosophy worked.

Mr. Marinelli quickly became a household name in the industry, and First National Bank of Toledo reaped the benefits of expanding a new business through Mr. Marinelli's lead.

"It grew slowly, but they became a powerhouse," Mr. Marinelli said of First National Bank of Toledo in a 2001 Blade profile.

In 1968, Mr. Marinelli got four car dealers to sign up for floor-plan financing through First National, propelling it to become the largest auto lender in the Toledo market.

But that success caught the eye of buyers, and Mr. Marinelli sensed his time with First National was running out. After Fifth Third Bank acquired First National Bank, Mr. Marinelli started his own company, Rome Marinelli & Associates / Rome Marinelli Motor Cars, with his son-in-law, Mark Frederick.

Through years of working with countless salesmen and dealers, the name "Marinelli" became a fixture in the industry locally.

"To this day, I have people come up to me and say, 'Oh, Marinelli, is Rome your Dad?'" his son said. "And they'll say, 'Oh I remember your Dad from when I was in the car business, and I'm retired now, and he was a great guy, he would come in on Saturdays, and he remembered my name.' It's kind of neat for a son to hear."

Mr. Marinelli built many friendships during his career.

None lasted longer than his one with Bill Sheehan, a debt restructurer, whom he met in 2008 after a referral during the financial crisis of 2008. The two teamed up to help small businesses by gathering investors and working to restructure debt for businesses struggling at the time.

"We met and he asked 'How do we remedy the situation?'" Mr. Sheehan recalled. "And he told me 'If you can do this, I'll back it.'"

"We would help small businesses that had gotten in trouble that the bank would no longer fund," he continued. "...Everyone was getting thrown out of the bank in 2008 and 2009, and that's when he [Mr. Marinelli] realized 'Wait a second, there's got to be a place and a way to help good people who are really suffering as a result of something that was none of their doing. ...In a way, I think he felt like he was playing Robin Hood."

Mr. Sheehan and Mr. Marinelli remained closed friends as the two grew older.

Mr. Sheehan would take him to church, accompany him to dinner, or just hang out and talk business deals.

Later in life, Mr. Marinelli spent a lot of time baking bread.

According to his peers, he was talented at it.

"He was a wonderful, wonderful man," Mr. Sheehan said. "He was meant to be with people, doing deals. He was a social person. He loved telling stories. And a guy as active as Rome Marinelli was never short of stories to tell."

Mr. Marinelli was born in the Abruzzo region of Italy on Nov. 21, 1928, but emigrated to the United States when he was just 2 years old.

In 1924, four years before his birth, Congress passed the "Immigration Act," which drastically reduced the number of immigrants America would receive from southern, central, and eastern Europe. Though it didn't specify a limitation on Italian immigrants, it severely reduced how many Italians were allowed into the country.

Mr. Marinelli had an easier path to getting to the United States than many other Italians.

His mother was a U.S. citizen who was born in Milwaukee. Mr. Marinelli's parents settled in Philadelphia when they eventually got to the United States, and Mr. Marinelli enlisted in the U.S. Navy after high school. He married his wife, Teresa, in 1935. She died in 2009.

"He was a good father, and a good provider," Vincent Marinelli said. "He was always active in what we did."

Surviving are his son, Vincent Marinelli; daughters Carol Montz, Janet Badyna, MaryAnn Frederick, and Lisa Walsh; seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial Mass will be held at Gesu Catholic Church, 2045 Parkside Blvd. in Toledo, at 11 a.m. on Sept. 7. Visitation begins at 9:45 a.m.

The family suggests tributes to St. Francis de Sales and Notre Dame Academy high schools.

This is a news story by Brooks Sutherland. He can be contacted at bsuterland@theblade.com">bsutherland@theblade.com.