Marco Demarco

Marco DeMarco, 97 year old retired Professor of Art, peacefully entered eternal life on Wednesday, Sept 30th in his home under the care of Summa Hospice and Visiting Angels.

Marco DeMarco was born on July 13th, 1918 to Italian immigrants, Eugenio and Gemma Grimaldi DeMarco, at home in Little Italy (Murray Hill) in Cleveland. He was the fourth child of seven children.

Influential people in his life were his mother, his father, who introduced him to music by taking him to the opera, and his third grade teacher, who opened his soul to art by introducing him to
Reproductions of great art and encouraging him to attend the free art classes on Saturdays at the
Cleveland Museum of Art.

Marco graduated from East Technical High School. In 1936 he was awarded a full scholarship to the Cleveland School of Art, now known as the Cleveland Institute of Art, by Scholastic Magazine. Upon graduating, he attended the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center until Pearl Harbor when he enlisted in the US Army and served his country for four years in Alaska.

Furthering his art career, Marco returned to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center on the GI Bill in 1945. However, after winning first prize in drawing at the 1945 Cleveland Museum of Art May Show, he was hired to teach drawing at the Cleveland School of Art, which later became CIA.

During this time, he married Wilma Williams, a graduate of the University of Akron and later a graduate of CIA. She spent her life as a fashion artist. He was encouraged to go to New York City where he worked in Advertising. While there he was offered the Chairmanship of the CIA Graphic
Design Department. Upon returning to Cleveland, he taught graphic design, illustration, and drawing. Under his leadership this department expanded from six students to sixty. After
thirty-five years of service, he retired to a house he designed in what became the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Wilma, his beloved wife, passed away in 2008. He learned to revere God through
the master artists' renditions of Biblical themes. He was laid to rest beside his beloved Wilma in Northlawn Memorial Gardens in Peninsula by the Billow Funeral Home. His mural painting of the assassination of President Garfield resides in Garfield's Memorial Tomb in Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland. He will be remembered by all who knew him through his strong political views, love of baseball, football and nature, concern for the underdog, prolific art and his profound generosity.

An informal Celebration of his art and life will be held in his home at 3331 Caleb Street, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, this Sunday, October 25th, at 3 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to: 1. Summa Foundation--Summa Hospice, PO Box 2090, Akron, OH 44398, 2. Doctors Without Borders, 333 7th Ave., New York, NY 10001-5004 (212.679.6800), 3. NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011(212.727.2700). To share a Memory, Send a Condolence or Light a Candle, visit the Tribute Wall at www.billowfuneralhomes.com (Billow FALLS Chapel)