Antonio Guillermo Marino Perez of Beaumont, Texas, passed away at the age of 82 on the day of The Exultation of the Holy Cross, September 14, 2015, at the Hour of Mercy.

He was a native of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba and as his mother Rosita Perez de Marino was giving birth as the procession of the Sacred Heart was passing in front of the house; a great blessing that lasted all his life as he was a man of faith, honesty and decency. His father, Antonio Marino Rodriguez, born in Spain, was a business man, very respected in the community. His mother, Rosita Perez Nunez, was a socialite.

He went to Catholic Primary School for boys directed by Jesuits priests “Dolores” (name of school). He then completed his elementary education and later went to Havana for his high school education to “Treyes School” where he graduated with honors.

After this his parents sent him to the United States of America to study Mechanical Engineering, first to Penninton School to learn English and then to the University of Steven’s Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, where he graduated in 1956. At the graduation his parents and his brother, Alberto Marino, and his sister, Rosie Cunill, joined him for a trip to Europe, with the whole family, that lasted a couple of months and then returned to Cuba and started to work in the Santiago de Cuba Texaco Refinery in 1957.

On December 29, 1957, he married his sweetheart of three years, Antonia Maria Barberena Canepa (Toni), with a beautiful wedding at the church of the Holy Family “Sagrada Familia”with a Nuptial Mass directed by the cousin of the bride, Reverend Angel Mario Rivas Canepa, called Ito. Ito at the time was the Chaplin of the University of Santiago and the priest that was with Castro during his time in the Sierra Miestra. Ito escaped out of Cuba when they realized that the revolution was a Communist one and he started a new Christian Movement against the Communist revolution, he was persecuted and left Cuba to die in Costa Rica, Central America.

After the wedding, they went on a long honeymoon throughout the country as they chose this gift instead of traveling out of the country. Something that they were grateful to God; for they were able to visit many places in Cuba to which they had never been through the years. Once in power, Castro made no secret of his true intentions, declaring himself a Communist shortly after taking control. The island’s citizens underwent reduced freedoms and oppressions, and for many, the only way to escape this way of life was to leave Cuba. His wife, Toni, was a teacher in the country side at that time and on her last trip before she quit her job she went to say goodbye to the people that were very fond of her. This trip caused the loss of her baby due to miscarriage because the traveling during bad weather was so difficult on the trip. They were very distraught by what happened and blessed only a month later to find out she was pregnant again with her daughter, Carmen Rosa.

After they had their first daughter, Carmen Rosa, was born, the situation in Cuba was very difficult with Castro’s regime. Tony was put in jail three times to the point that life was becoming very difficult. Toni was already pregnant with Maria. The children in Cuba were being taken away from their parents and they were going to lose power over their children when they were 3 years old. So they decided to send Carmen away from Cuba with her grandmother to the United States to the house of their aunts, one in Miami and one in New York, when she was only 2 ½ years old. On the 10th of December, 1961, the second daughter, Mary Isabel (Maribel) was born. A few days later on the 31st of December of the same year. Carmen and her grandmother, Carmen Barberena, left Cuba to stay with the Aunts especially the one in New York, Delia Barberena.

On May 2, 1962, leaving behind a wife and a child, Tony, left Cuba to find freedom in the United States. He immediately was offered a position with Texaco in Amarillo, Texas, but later on they changed it to the Eagle Point Plant in Westville, New Jersey, since his daughter was in New York with the grandmother and the aunt. Later he prepared an apartment in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, waiting for the family that was coming someday, filling it with furniture with sorrow and pain every day expecting them until one day when he received the good news of their coming. This was followed by the terrible news of the broken relationship with the United States and closing the doors of Cuba to his people. So he had to start looking again for a place that would open their arms to them.

After Mexico denied the visa he was devastated, as his wife in Cuba, Toni, almost died with a stroke when she heard the news. He then diverted his hopes to Spain, land of his father, and they were able to go to Madrid. By a beautiful miracle of The Christ of Medinacelli, they were able to leave Spain in three months, which was not the year he had expected. They left in a chartered plane with refuges. Toni arrived with Maria, 2 years old, at the New York airport on the 10th of September, 1963. Toni was the last person to leave the plane after the pilot and all the attendants had come out, with the family crying because they thought she had not arrived. They moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and lived there for 22 years.

After a while Tony became a Texaco Staff Engineer. In 1985 the refinery was sold to Global and he was without a job. Texaco relocated him to a Port Arthur, Texas, plant where he worked until his retirement in 1993; 35 years of hard work. Beaumont became his home and St. Jude Thaddeus his church that opened their arms to the new family and through the passing of years became his second home.

Tony and Toni are parents of 3 daughters and 6 grandchildren who live in New Jersey. His daughters that stayed in the northeast got married and became parents. Two daughters with their husbands live in New Jersey and one daughter and her husband lives in New Hampshire. Tony purchased a motor home in which they used to go to the East Coast and visit the family. Shortly before he got sick his grandson, Justin, came to visit them. After a few weeks with them he asked permission to stay longer. Later he decided to live in Beaumont and got a position with a mortgage company. He became part of their life helping and loving his “Papi” as all the grandchildren called him.

After retirement, Tony was a 3rd Degree Knight of Columbus and took part in Bible Studies and was part of the ACTS Retreat’s and was a member of the ACTS Team four times. He was Eucharistic Minister at St. Jude and he belonged with his wife, Toni, to Father Gobi’s Marian Cenacle to pray for Catholic priests for many years. He and his wife distributed Holy Communion for many years at St. Elizabeth Hospital and Nursing Homes and to the homebound. He went to daily Mass with Toni and both prayed the rosary after Mass and went to adoration every Monday at St. Jude. Tony had the honor and privilege to put the stole on the Deacon who closed Adoration with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament for all the years since it began at St. Jude and stopped when he finally could not get out of the house. He received Holy Communion everyday as a friend brought it to them.

He was the only provider for their home. His wife was a homemaker and an artist which gave her the opportunity to paint. He enjoyed her art and helped her with the framing and preparation of her art the same as when she did sculpture. He helped a lot with the casting of the pieces. He was the most fervent admirer of her job.

Tony was a very healthy man enjoying doing projects in the house, helping with the garden and all his wife’s multiple projects, playing different sports, exercising and specially playing golf with great friends. He enjoyed all the projects done by The Men of Jude and always was doing something. He was sick for four years but it was only during the last six months that he stopped doing the things that he always loved. Only the last few months of his life when he became really sick was he incapacitated. He was given very little time after his diagnosis of cancer which he never knew he had as his wife kept it from him so he didn’t give up on life.

Survivors include his loving wife of fifty-seven years, Antonia Maria Barberena (Toni) as well as his daughters, Carmen Maria Van Meter and her husband, Don; Maria Marino and her husband, Vince; and Patricia Maria St. Onge and her husband, Robert; grandchildren, Justin and Alexa  Ahramjian, Donnie Van Meter, Samantha, Logan and Hunter St. Onge; niece, Xiomara Shapiro; and nieces and nephews in Venezuela and Miami; brother, Alberto Marino and his wife, Ivette; and sister, Rosie Cunill and  husband, Jaime Cunill.

A gathering of Mr. Marino's family and friends will be from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., with his Rosary recited at 6:00 p.m., Friday, September 18, 2015, at Broussard's, 1605 North Major Drive, Beaumont. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, September 19, 2015, at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church, 6825 Gladys Avenue, Beaumont. 

Memorial contributions may be made to the Beaumont Rainbow Room, a non-profit for abused children, P.O. Box 5974, Beaumont, Texas 77726-5974; or the American Lung Association, 5926 Balcones Drive, Austin, Texas 78731.