Page 46 - JULY 2016 Newsletter

To s ve and respect
Marino family dealership offers unique support for first responders
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Amidst all the hottest Chrysler 200s and 300s, Jeep Cherokees and Grand Cherokees and Patriots, Pacifica’s and Wranglers, a standing banner steals the spotlight. In the showroom of Marino Chrysler on Irving Park Road in Chicago, signs on both ends promise, “We support our First Responders who make a difference in our commu- nity.”
Actually, it’s more than a promise from Tony Marino, the proprietor of his family business; it’s a way of doing business. He gets up for work every day at 5 a.m. bent on serving the community the way his father, Greg, and his uncle Ken Angarone, a commander in Vice for the Depart- ment, showed him, and with the respect instilled during his matriculation from St. John’s Military Academy.
“Ever since I was a kid, walking up and down the street you’d see the people who put their lives on the line, and it was all about respecting them,” Marino shares. “It’s al- ways been in our family. My dad has friends and relatives on the job – police, firefighters and EMTs. I learned to look at those people who protect you as real-life heroes.”
One of the great learning events for Marino was his time at St. John’s in Delafield, Wisconsin. He spent his junior high and high school years there where the teachers were retired military members, who helped bring discipline, structure and respect to his life at an age when most kids are still learning how to spell those words. Having to live out of the house, meeting the academic requirements and getting the opportunity to play interscholastic sports also helped shaped a perspective that would lead to find- ing his own, unique way to serve.
“Learning the respect for your elders, your colleagues and your cohorts – that’s what got me through college and what has gotten me through life,” Marino confides. “It taught me more about life than even college.”
College was the University of Dayton, from where Ma- rino graduated in 2004 with a degree in Business Ad- ministration with emphasis in finance and accounting. He worked in banking for five years and even did some accounting for General Motors until 2009 when the auto business called him home.
Greg Marino, who matriculated in the 1960s from St.
Patrick High School where he had many friends that be- came law enforcement officers – including a certain Chi- cago Lodge 7 President whom was one of his closest – has been in the auto business for more than 45 years. The Marino lineage actually goes back to 1938 and the days of Uptown Auto Supply on Broadway Avenue on Chicago’s North Side.
Greg started Marino Chrysler Jeep Dodge in 2008, and Tony worked his way up from sales to Finance Manager to President, and has been getting up at 5 a.m. six days a week to do that job since 2012.
“Dad gave me an opportunity, and I started by answer- ing phones,” he adds. “It’s pretty crazy.”
Maybe it’s what he learned from Uncle Ken, or some- thing that has occurred by osmosis from serving so many first responders who have purchased cars from Marino, but when considering what keeps him getting up at 5 a.m., Tony sounds somewhat like a cop when he cites the different set of challenges that come with every day and the opportunity to work with people. And he’s really serv- ing them in what is a difficult situation; obviously noth-
46 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JULY 2016