Robert Richard Marak

Robert Richard Marak January 30, 1929 – June 13, 2016 Bob, 87, of Wakefield, passed away quietly on Monday June 13, 2016. One of 10 children, Bob was born and raised in West Haven, CT. He later moved to Bridgeport where he met and married Judy Jones, of Fairfield, CT. They were married for almost 68 years. Bob began a 33-year career as a marine biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service (now NOAA) in the Milford, CT lab while attending the University of Bridgeport, from which he graduated. He moved on to work at the lab in Woods Hole, a position often requiring him to spend two-week stints at sea aboard the research vessels Albatross III and IV. In 1960, Bob and his family moved to Juneau, Alaska for one year to prepare data for a tri-country salmon conference. After his return to Woods Hole, Bob was on a team that developed a revolutionary plankton collection vehicle, his beloved Bongo Net. In 1967, Bob became involved in joint fisheries research cruises with scientists from Kaliningrad, USSR. Bob then took a break from plankton sorting with an overseas position at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy for a year. From Rome he traveled to Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal for FAO. Upon his return to the US, Bob moved to the Narragansett lab and had further international research collaboration with a lab in Szczecin, Poland. Before his retirement in 1982, research cruises took him from the North Sea of England to Chile and Antarctica. Bob also had numerous outside interests such as gardening, designing and building homes, fine cabinetry and woodworking, refinishing antique furniture, leather tanning and moccasin making. Bob’s family includes his wife, children Debbie Dohrmann, her husband John of Olympia, WA, their children, Andrew of Washington, D.C. , and Jennifer and her husband Bob (Langbehn) and their son Connor, of Everett, WA; Robert Jr. and his wife Cathy of Walpole, MA; Valerie of Wakefield, RI; Philip and his wife Lan of Attleboro, MA. In addition, he is survived by a sister, Margaret Gagne of Lady Lake, FL. The memorial service for Robert Marak will take place on September 10 at 11 am at:Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd 383 Old North Road Kingston, Rhode Island The service will be followed by a luncheon; we want to see as many of Bob’s friends as possible. Kindly let us know if you will attend. Please contact: [emailprotected] tel. 401-783-4776 or [emailprotected] tel. 508-222-0958 In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to NARFE Alzheimer’s Research: https://act.alz.org/site/Donation2?idb=1548202021&df_id=9940&9940.donation=form1 Please use: Federation - RI, Chapter #0998 Or via mail: Alzheimer's Association National Office, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Fl. 17, Chicago, IL 60601s