Marvin Driscoll

I first met Marv in about 1966 at Washington Elementary in Mt. Vernon, where we became friends. We enjoyed a misspent youth together in Junior High and High School, squandering a pretty good free education in search of fun, motorcycles, girls, cars, hunting and fishing, and general mischief. We camped in his back timber in an old tin shed we built, drank beef filched from Ralph and Virginia, and smoked likewise stolen cigarettes while enjoying the great outdoors in more or less freedom. His grandpa and grandma Herman lived right down the road and we spent a lot of time there being regaled with stories by his Grandpa, whom Marv adored. Grandpa Herman had served in both WW1 and WW2 and had lived an adventurous life and had lots of tales to tell wide-eyed lads. We went fishing several times in Harper’s Ferry at a cabin with Ralph, Grandpa Herman and with Marv’s brother Charlie, and I think Al was with us too. Aviation was always present around the Driscoll house, and Marv and I flew in his Dad’s open cockpit biplane in the front seat where I can testify that one of us was in wild-eyed terror and fascination, all at the same time.
Marv and I stayed over at each other’s houses and at our place he was introduced to a working farm, something I envied him at NOT having! In high school we were both far more interested in mechanics than academics, but in our senior year we were allowed to go to a Kirkwood program that introduced high school students to machining, and he and I were both hooked. After graduation, a minor miracle in itself, Marv and I began our working career at Reliable Manufacturing and rented a run-down apartment over by Mercy Hospital. We didn’t know it was supposedly a “bad” part of town, we were just overjoyed at having a place out from under parent’s prying eyes!
Marv moved to Louisiana in the general vicinity of his brother Charlie, and we stayed in touch by phone from time to time. I was in the service, got married, and sort of lost touch with Marv , but we always picked right back up whenever we connected. Marv married briefly, divorced, and eventually made his way back to Iowa and moved in with his Mom at the old Herman place, where he lived after her death, and until entering the hospital with his own health problems.
Marv was a complicated guy, he could be deeply generous, giving and compassionate, and 2 minutes later, the most obstinate, bull-headed individual on the planet. He was hard working and had a good basic set of right and wrong and tried to live his life accordingly. He struggled at many times in his life with his troubles, disappointments and setbacks, and I think whatever peace Marv found in this life it was at the farm that his Grandparents had and he later owned after his Mom died. Marv was a decent, but flawed human being, like many of us, and any who knew him knew what his flaws were, and so did he. He left too early, and under trying health issues, but I will remember the fun-loving young guy that I shared many an adventure with and was happy to call my friend.