STUART, FL
Elmer Marlin (98), longtime Columbus resident, retired manufacturing director at Cummins and, along with his wife Billie Jean Marlin (who died in 1997), the former owner/operator of Belmar Farms Kennels, died Thursday, June 2nd in Stuart, FL where he had been living for the past several years.
Most who knew him were surprised. Even at 98, Elmer seemed way too strong willed, too adventurous, too solutions-oriented and way too cantankerous to die.
Born in Brooklyn, NY in the depths of the Depression and forged in the heat of World War II, Elmer was a combat-injured D-Day veteran who, then barely 20 years old, landed on Utah Beach and fought Nazis to the border of Germany, and rarely talked about it. He was also a former commercial fisherman who never lost his love for the sea; a farmer who learned by doing; a fearsome ice hockey player who continued to play long after most others his age would have given up the sport; a diesel mechanic at heart who rose to lead some of Cummins most important projects; a rocket scientist; a husband (twice); a father to five and grandfather to nine and a friend to people of every stripe: engineer, handyman, plumber, housekeeper, mechanic, lawyer, farmer, doctor, fisherman and corporate executive. He showed by example how to live life to the fullest.
In the end, as Elmer might say, his radiator simply stopped radiating, his carburetor stopped carburating, and his pistons stopped too. He did not go gently.
He loved the sea. After the War, Elmer married Edith, his high school sweetheart, and became a commercial fisherman – running one boat, the “Marlin II”, out of Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn – and, from Manhattan, another one – the “Falcon” – a 110’ submarine chaser that he bought at auction and converted to a charter fishing boat. It was fast! Elmer never lost his love for the sea – or for fishing. He taught all a lot – including how to tell others about your catch. (“The first liar never wins.”)
In his late 20s, Elmer sold the fishing boats and (with a partner) bought a coastal oil tanker that later sank in New York harbor. It nearly wiped him out. But he didn’t quit. Elmer, Edith and his new son, Ken, left Brooklyn for the University of New Mexico (With the G.I. bill + some insurance money from the tanker + income as Edith taught elementary school. They made it work.). A daughter, Nancy, was born. Elmer earned engineering degrees and became a rocket scientist specializing in thermodynamics. He showed us that you can be whatever you want to be if you are willing to work hard at it.
In his 30s, Elmer moved the family to Arizona where he worked on the Mercury and Gemini space programs and the C5A “Galaxy”, among others. He bought a boat that he could trailer to local lakes – and to the Gulf of Mexico, where he found the best spots for sailfish and grouper.
In his 40s, Elmer and Edith divorced. Later, he married Billie Jean and merged her three kids (Steve, Laure and Kathe Dreiseszun) with his. It worked. More adventures – in Mexico, Yellowstone, Lake Powell in its infancy and more. They all loved each other.
In his 50s, Elmer’s employer folded, and he had to change careers. He persevered – moving the family to Indiana where he (eventually) spent 20+ years as an executive at Cummins. He was proud of much – including being a godfather of Cummins’ small diesel engine – the one that you see in RAM trucks, as well as being a driving force behind operations in Pune India, Rocky Mount NC, and more. At Cummins, Elmer was known for being willing to speak truth to power. Another trait that he taught us all.
Elmer, the Brooklyn boy, the fisherman, also loved animals – and mechanical things. So, when he moved to Columbus, he and Billie Jean bought a farm – and built a boarding kennel. They worked on the farm and the kennel 7 days a week, while he also worked hard at Cummins. They created a full-time paradise. There were cattle and corn and hay of course. And also dogs (a lot of them), and cats, and Quacker the duck, and Aries the ram, and horses, including Tony, a quarter-horse that had been a barrel racer. Elmer showed by example how hard work and fun are completely compatible, if you love what you are doing.
When he was in his 60s, Elmer’s sons were into downhill snow skiing. It was not one of Elmer’s strengths. But that didn’t stop him from accompanying them on yearly treks to ski resorts throughout the US, France, Austria and Switzerland. That’s when they first realized that he was afraid of heights. He never actually told anyone that. And it certainly didn’t stop him. Although he did hold on very tight to the back of the ski lift chair. He never mastered skiing. But he never met a ski run that he wouldn’t try, if his sons did. He never backed away from a challenge. When he fell, he got up and went at it again. Another life lesson from Elmer.
Elmer retired from Cummins to the farm. When Billie Jean died, he sold the farm and went back to the sea. He bought a small house in Palm City, Florida with a dock out back. Then, he bought the Marlin III, a 1972, 48’ Hatteras with two big Detroit Diesel engines. (Not Cummins engines – but, as he would say, sometimes you have to play the cards that you are dealt.) He loved nothing more than taking friends and family out on the Marlin III for a day cruise or to the Bahamas for longer trips. (The boat is still there, tied up behind his house. We need him – no one else knows why we have to flip the switch marked “ice maker” in order to turn on the lights in the engine room.)
Elmer is gone now. But not forgotten. His legacy lives on in the examples he set and the lessons he taught to his family, his colleagues and his friends.
He will be sorely missed by his family: Ken Marlin and Jacqueline Barnathan; Steve and Toni Dreiseszun; Nancy Marlin-Snyder and Don Snyder; Laure and Chris Reynolds; Kathe and Tim Ogle; along with his 9 grandchildren: Victoria Marlin; Meghan Snyder and Eric Flood; Mya Snyder; Spencer Dreiseszun; Ryan Ogle and Eleanore Ogle; Matt Ogle and Michelle Ogle; Andrew Ogle and Lauren Ogle; Jessica Reynolds; Chase Reynolds and the five great grandkids too.
Elmer was the person most of us would choose to be stranded with on a deserted island. (Actually, he was once shipwrecked and stranded on a small deserted Bahama island – apparently sometimes used by drug smugglers, but that’s a story for another day.) His never-quit, no-excuses, find-a-solution, fix-the-problem, keep-going, love-the-adventure, attitude enriched all of our lives. He wasn’t neat. (He put greasy engine parts on the kitchen counter, tracked in mud, and dropped food.) He wasn’t politic. (He spoke truth to power and was less than polite to people who thought he needed help.) But he lived a lot, loved many, and could build or fix anything (MacGyver in the flesh). If there were a few parts left over, it probably worked better that way.
Elmer Marlin was born in Brooklyn, NY on March 9, 1924 to George and Mae Margolin. He died June 2, 2022 in Stuart, Florida. Many will miss him.
In lieu of flowers, Memorials can be made to: “Billie” Elmer Marlin Memorial to benefit the Bartholomew County Humane Society” via https://www.heritagefundbc.org
(click on “Give Now” —Please indicate “Billie &Elmer Marlin” in the “Person being remembered/honored” memo field.)
Checks may also be sent directly to:
Heritage Fund
P.O. Box 1547
538 Franklin St.
Columbus, IN 47201
*** Please indicate “Billie &Elmer Marlin” in the memo line
