Pasquale “Pat” Marinelli, retired SIU port agent and an active figure in many of the union’s earliest organizing drives, passed away Sept. 7 at age 82, following a heart attack.Marinelli had a well-earned reputation for being tough when the situation called for it, but he got along well with his SIU brothers and sisters, and he was committed to the union.
“He was a good official, one of the old-timers,” recalled SIU President Michael Sacco. “He sailed in the deck department and he did a lot of organizing. He also helped provide stability on the West Coast for the SIU.”
Retired SIU Vice President Contracts Red Campbell remembered Marinelli as “good-natured and very dedicated when it came to union matters. He carried his weight.”
Retired Bosun Kenny Roberts periodically worked with Marinelli throughout his own 33-year career with the SIU. “He was a nice guy and always helpful to the men,” Roberts said. “Any time you asked him to have a drink or shoot the bull or whatever, he’d do it.”
Marinelli served in the armed forces during part of World War II, and then joined the union in 1945 in the port of New York. He sailed as an AB and bosun until coming ashore to work for the SIU in 1956.
His career with the union was anything but dull. Marinelli in the 1940s took part in the Isthmian beef and the garment strike, and later walked the picket lines in both the Greater New York Harbor beef and the Robin Line strike, among others.
Marinelli served as the union’s port agent in San Juan, P.R. in 1960. At various other times, he worked as a patrolman in San Francisco; Wilmington, Calif.; and Brooklyn.
He retired to New York State in 1977, largely due to health issues, and most recently lived in North Babylon, N.Y.
Burial took place at St. John’s Cemetery in Middle Village, N.Y.
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