November 29, 2021
Remembering John Marinatto ’79
By Gregg Burke ’99G
If ever there is comfort in passage, then surely the image of our John Marinatto ’79 being welcomed to his reward by his predeceased parents allows for ease of heart. And surely, most assuredly in fact, his pearly gates were the corner of River and Eaton, with Harkins looming for his eternal pasture. And just beyond would be John Fabian Cunningham, O.P. and de Guzman himself, expressing thanks for John’s fealty to the Dominican tradition of a fullness contributing to the common good.
But, at the end of the day, any evaluation of the man would not include inventory of work done in a ticket office, on press row, or even hiring and leading coaches and staff. Nor would it immediately catalogue navigating an entire athletic conference through turbulence and the biliousness of greed he so abhorred. No, his accomplishments could never find their way to spreadsheet nor statements of profit or loss.
The biography that will grace pages of Friar athletics history will show a young man whose fidelity led him to the seminary before pursuing an almost equal worship of Providence College and Friar basketball. Decidedly unathletic by his own evaluation, he found his way to the end of the bench, serving Dave Gavitt ’07Hon. as basketball manager and trusted steward. It was a tutorial and relationship that would be crucial to John long after Dave had left us.
John did indeed serve PC well as ticket manager and director of sports information. While he never truly enjoyed that work, it was a premium he paid toward his purpose, for serving as athletics director was his calling. Sitting in the seat of his heroes, Dave Gavitt and Lou Lamoriello ’63, ’01Hon.,was humbling and inspirational on a daily basis.
But where their gifts were building programs and teams, John’s was student athlete centric. He reveled in lending guidance and support. His scripture was providing student-athletes a decorousness and propriety that would serve well beyond graduation. Even as teams he worked with and led cut down nets and garnered silver and gold for curios destined to be dusty and forgotten, he ached to contribute to their well-being off the court, field, ice, or pool. Where so many return to their alma mater with the hope of repaying what the college did for them, John’s call was to serve for what PC could do for others.
If there was weakness or failure, it was in suffering poorly those who sought the spotlight or a benefit never earned. He could not arrest the daemonophobia of those who felt athletic success eroded the academic prowess of a college whose reputation was well earned and stood beyond reproach.
For, at that end of the day when one catalogues and inventories, our John Marinatto had a fitness in moral code and munificence in service to alma mater and those who served her that was unmatched.
John Marinatto ’79 was named PC’s director of athletics in 1987. Gregg Burke ’99G was his first administrative hire and served as his associate director for 13 years. Mr. Marinatto became associate director of the BIG EAST Conference in 2002 and was commissioner from 2009-2012. He died on June 12, 2021.
john marinatto obituary
