Community service is often an overused phrase when it comes to describing one’s life. It is often used casually and liberally to describe a person who does a few things, but is not necessarily servants to the community they live in.

 

Albert Frank Marano, Jr., was a community servant. With Albert, it was not hyperbole. It was not something he wanted to acknowledge. It was who he was.

 

I honestly cannot tell you how I met Albert Marano. I would imagine it was during his time with the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department while serving as Chief Deputy under former Sheriff Jim Jack when I first began covering news.

 

As was generally the case, when anyone met Marano, we became friends. We bonded quickly over mutual friends and knowing family members, and it developed into a trust on a professional standpoint and friendship that lasted until the day he died on a personal level.

 

The passing of Marano, which as most of you know took place April 16 after a lengthy battle with cancer, is the reason for this blog. While there is no bigger loss than to those in his family, the loss to the Harrison County community is substantial.

 

While many remember him as his days in law enforcement, and we’ll get back to that, Marano was still serving as an elected official until his very last breath. He was the Harrison County Circuit Clerk, a job a lot less high profile than his law enforcement posts that included two terms as Harrison County Sheriff.

 

It did not mean the role was any less important. Marano took the role seriously, and from my own personal experience, took the role fairly.

 

During his time in office, I received a call to jury duty, which was one of his office’s many responsibilities. I tried to get out of it.

 

Not because I did not want to serve, but my initial response was that I work every week with law enforcement across the county. I often deal with lawyers on an occasional basis and thought even subconsciously it would impact my judgement.

 

Marano took my call and explained that many of the cases would not involve law enforcement. And that if there were cases that did have people I knew on a level, I would be considered to be excused – as, he pointed out, anyone else would.

 

I served the term. He treated me kindly and explained the reasoning for his decision. He was fair to me when he explained it all, and then we talked like we always did about people we both knew. Albert always wanted to know about my mother-in-law Cherly Romano, who worked with him for years as the assessor at the Harrison County Courthouse.

 

The very last time I talked with Albert, several months back at Immaculate Conception Church, we talked briefly. And he wanted to know how Cherly was doing. He did this at a time when his own health was betraying him in a way that would take his life, yet he still had time for kindness.

 

In law enforcement, where individuals often deal with the worst society has to offer daily, developing a ridged edge can occur. Marano, who spent more than three decades wearing a badge, never let it change the core of who he was. And that was a decent and good man.

 

Marano, I believe, had an early stop with the Nutter Fort Police Department. He finished things up with a lengthy stretch in the sheriff’s office. He started as a deputy, moved up to chief deputy, and was elected twice as sheriff where he served from 2008 to 2016 – and then began his time as Harrison County Circuit Clerk.

 

The leadership in law enforcement was not limited to the county. Marano also served with distinction on the West Virgina Sheriffs Association Board of Directors.

 

A lot of that information was posted on social media by news outlets following his death and in the obituary that followed shortly thereafter. What proved more amazing to me was the comments about Marano.

 

On our pages here on Connect-Bridgeport, there were hundreds on our page and the pages of individuals that shared them. The praise was universal. Not a single comment disparaged him or cast him in a negative light.

 

Understand, he spent a career in law enforcement. Just by doing the right thing, particularly where you are the face of a police organization, you make an enemy. I am not saying he did not have them, but if they were out there, they remained hidden.

 

It should be noted that there was another loss this month. Former Harrison County Prosecuting Attorney Ed Matko passed away at the age of 91.

 

From 1968 to 2000, Matko held the position. In office for 32 years and did so with dignity and honor.

 

Although my interactions with him were limited at best, praise also rang in from all corners of the social media world for this long-time public servant. And this came as he had been out of the public spotlight for more than a quarter of a century.

 

It shows with both men that you can manage difficult jobs requiring tough decisions and remain a good and decent person. Their lives may be over, but their examples are not.

 

Rest in peace Albert and Ed. Your work here is done.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows then Sheriff Albert Marano being interviewed following a press conference, while he is shown in the middle of the second photo addressing the media as part of the Street Crimes and Drug (SCAD) unit. In the third photo, he takes the oath to serve as Harrison County Clerk. Bottom photo is of former Harrison County Prosecuting Attorney Ed Matko.