1907 – 1998 (March 1)
Peter Joseph Marron was born in County Caven, Ireland in 1907, the son of Thomas Marron and Margaret Markey. He immigrated through Ellis Island in 1923 with his sister, Margaret Marron. Working at odd jobs he saved enough money to attend Augustinian Academy on Staten Island, New York, and graduated at the age of twenty-one. He entered the novitiate in 1928, made simple profession of vows on September 10, 1929, and graduated from Villanova College in 1933. After completing theological studies at Augustinian College in Washington, DC he was ordained in the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on June 9, 1936, and celebrated his first Solemn High Mass at Nativity Church in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Father Marron’s first assignment was teaching English, general science, and religion at Saint Rita High School, Chicago, IL., from 1937 to 1941. He served as an assistant pastor in Saint Mary’s Church, Rockford, IL., from 1941 to 1945.
At the end of World War II his request to become a Navy chaplain was approved accepted. He served on board ship and in Navy bases all over the world including Korea during the Korean War. He retired with the rank of Commander in 1969 and joined the formation community at Cole Street in San Francisco, CA. In 1970 he was assigned to St. Patrick’s Church in San Diego as associate pastor.
Father Marron retired to the Saint Augustine High School monastery in 1975. For the next eighteen years he was a familiar figure at Saints. He assisted at parishes in San Diego until he suffered a stroke in 1993. That began his decline in health leading to his death at ninety-one as the then oldest Augustinian in the United States, on March 1, 1998. A Mass of Christian Burial was offered on Friday, March 6, at Saint Patrick Church, San Diego, after which burial took place at Holy Cross Cemetery.
