Our Family
Francesco Crinella
Anna Crinella
Domenico Zurlo
Teresa Zurlo
Marino Crinella
Marian Zurlo Crinella
Uncle Domenic
Uncle Lou
Aunt Marguerite
Cousin Marina
Family Photos
The Letters
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About the Crinellas •
Our Family •
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The Letters
Marino Crinella
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Marino (b. 1904), with his mother Anna and sister Annetta left Italy to join his father and brothers in Minesota in 1908.
They contracted smallpox on board ship, and were quarantined at Ellis Island in New York.
All three contracted pneumonia during their confinement, and Annetta died at Ellis Island.
Anna and Marino were somehow transferred to Columbia Hospital, where they eventually recovered after several months in the hospital.
Anna and Marino stayed in New York for another year, while Anna worked as a domestic, to earn money to pay for the funeral and
hospital expenses and secure their passage to Minnesota, where they finally arrived in 1909.
Marino left Minnesota in 1925, when he was 20 years old. It was always
his intention to go back, because he could not imagine a finer place for
hunting and fishing, and the Crinella Brothers Plumbing and Steam-fitting
business had become quite successful. In 1925, the Mesabi Iron Range
community of Virginia, Minnesota was enjoying great economic prosperity,
which would continue even through the Great Depression years, and only
abate in the 1950's, when imported iron and steel became cheaper than
domestic products. So, his talk of returning to Minnesota extended
throughout his courtship of Marian, their marriage, and up until 1941,
when Marino brought his wife to Minnesota--his first return since leaving
16 years earlier. It was late September, and already snowing, and Marian
would have no part of it except for a fleeting moment three months later.
So, the dream of returning to Minnesota ended.
Marino did not push the issue, because he had also come to the realization
that hunting in sub-zero weather and fishing through a hole in the ice was
not as romantic as he had remembered it. Furthermore, his plumbing and
bar businesses in California had emerged out of the Great Depression doing
well, and he now had the time and resources to take advantage of the
abundant hunting and fishing opportunities in California. Shortly after
Pearl Harbor was bombed three months later and the Japanese shelled off
Santa Cruz, Marian begged Marino to move the family back to Minnesota, a
land she figured was so god-for-saken even the Japanese would not want to
invade it.
But Marino thought the country would pull together and prevail so they
stayed in Sonoma County. There was little time for anything other than
work. His string of cocktail lounges had grown to five, with servicemen
from the nearby Bay Area bases standing six-deep at each of them. To do
his part for the war effort, he was commuting to Mare Island, where he
worked as a plumber and steam-fitter on the submarines that were being
built. He often worked sixteen or more hours a day. When the war ended,
Marino had accumulated what for him seemed to be an unimaginable fortune,
and he sought ways of investing the money and freeing up as much time as
he could to spend with his family, especially his children as they grew up
and also, to hunt and fish. He joined a duck club, Paradise Farms, in
1946, and remained a member until the year of his death, 1988. There, he
hunted pheasants, ducks, and geese. His brothers, Dom and Lou, were now
living in Mendocino County, where there was great deer hunting, and he
often hunted deer at their deer camp, a vast ranch in the Mendocino
Mountains. He belonged to his own deer club, on the Veluntini Ranch a few
miles North of Guerneville. He took hunting trips to Nevada, Alaska and
Canada. He had a deep sea fishing boat, and fished for salmon and halibut
off the California Coast, near Bodega Bay. He had a smaller boat that he
used to troll for lake trout. His favorite form of fishing, however, was
wading in shallow streams fishing for California's rainbow trout. While
he certainly could have afforded it, he never hunted for "big-game,"
either in the United States or on safari in Africa--if you are not going
to eat it, don't shoot it.
Marino was forced to leave high school at age 16. His father and
brothers, who had the same years of formal education, did not see the
need for his learning any more than he already knew, and they needed him
in the plumbing business. He was a master plumber by age 19, and
president of the plumber's union in California when he was 25. Still, he
continued to take night school classes in Petaluma and, after the war when
he had the time and resources, he took courses in San Francisco that
eventually led to his gaining a real-estate broker's license, and then an
insurance broker's license. He hung out a shingle with his good friend,
John King, but worked at his leisure. He mainly put his education to use
in his land development business, which began in 1946 with three single
family homes, and continued to his death, when a 120-home subdivision was
on the planning table.
He was also taking music lessons at the time of his death and throughout
his long and happy life he was always taking a class or two, until his
death at age 84 as did Marian who was still studying at the Junior college
when she died at the age of ninety. They claimed this was the secret of
staying young along
with spending time with their children, grandchildren and
great-grandchildren.
Marino and his wife were always involved in multiple community activities,
fund raising for the new hospital and libraries in Petaluma, coaching and
transporting their children's athletic teams, and taking a very visible
role in the support of the good nuns at St. Vincent's school, their next
door neighbors on Howard Street. Marino was concerned with the very
conservative direction being taken by the post-war Petaluma City
government, seeing many good industries being denied planning approval
to locate in Petaluma. There was also very limited housing available in
Petaluma. As a result in those days very few of the young men and women
who went away to college returned because there were no jobs or housing
available. In 1952, he won a seat on the Petaluma City Council, along with
his friends John King and Jack Cavanaugh. They brought a progressive
flavor to the five-person council, and were responsible for bringing in
new families and new industries. Old-timers in the city decried the
growth, and soon the new residents became even more vociferous opponents
of growth. Marino did not flinch, always reminding his critics of the
fact that "people have a right to live in a home that they can afford."
He resigned from the Council in 1965, when he and Marian moved to their
new home on the 18th fairway of the Santa Rosa Golf an Country Club.
In 1950, at age 46, Marino, like his wife, had taken up golf and became a
very good golfer, getting down to a six handicap at one point. He first
shot his age in 1978, a 72 at age 73, in a father-son tournament, playing
with his son, Francis, at the tough Santa Rosa course. Thereafter, he
continued to shoot his age each year until the time of his death, in June
of 1988, a year in which he had already accomplished this feat no less
than a dozen times. In fact, Marino played so well, especially in amateur
tournaments, that it was assumed by those who played with him that golf
had been a life-long hobby, and his favorite pastime.
Marino and Marian bought a home on the 14th fairway of the Palm Desert
Country Club in 1962, and spent four or five months a year there.
However, Marino often left Palm Desert to go to his beloved duck club,
where he would spend several weeks a year. He often hunted alone,
accompanied by his dog, and he enjoyed the solitude. Perhaps being on his
own as a youngster in Minnesota had taught him to enjoy his own company.
There was no doubt in anyone's mind that hunting was his favorite pastime,
followed by fishing, and then golf--a distant third.
For several weeks following a successful deer hunt, we would enjoy
venison--steaks, chops, roasts, and even sausage. Marino's favorite was
venison stew, prepared using Nona Crinella's recipe.
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