Friends, family gather at wake for slain towing company owner

By Rebecca Baker
The Journal News

COLD SPRING - John Marcinak spent his life in his hometown of Garrison where, like his tow truck-driving father, he dedicated his life to pulling friends out of trouble.

"He'd give you anything he had and never expected anything in return," said Bob Maurice, one of Marcinak's childhood friends. "His father was like that."
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Maurice was among scores of mourners yesterday to pay their respects to Marcinak, who was found with gunshot wounds in front of his towing business last week.

Marcinak, the 49-year-old owner and operator of Garrison Garage, was discovered mortally wounded on the side of Route 9 Wednesday afternoon. He leaves a wife, Janet, their daughter and two young sons.

The Putnam County Sheriff's Department is investigating.

The line of mourners yesterday stretched down the block and around the corner from the Clinton Funeral Home in Cold Spring, where longtime buddies remembered Marcinak as a loving father and a good friend whose passion for cars led him to rebuild a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air as a young man and to cheer for NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Sr.

But his dedication to towing was what his oldest friends remembered yesterday. Maurice, a truck mechanic from Beacon, said Marcinak was constantly at his father's side growing up, even going out on calls with his dad. Marcinak inherited the tow-truck business from his father, John C. Marcinak, who died in 2000.

"That tow truck never left without him," he said.

Hugh Moss, a landscaper from Cold Spring, said just two weeks ago, Marcinak offered to drive up to New Paltz to help Moss' 20-year-old daughter after she got into an accident.

"He was always on call," Moss said. "Everyone knows his phone number by heart. He really knew his business."

Bob Anthony, a construction-truck driver who lives in Toms River, N.J., remembered drinking Pepsi with Marcinak in his parents' home after church on Sundays. He, like others at yesterday's wake, never knew Marcinak to have a single enemy and were baffled that anyone would want him dead.

"He was a Good Samaritan struck down," he said.

John McDonald, another childhood friend who is a New York Police Department detective, said he was confident Putnam County investigators would find Marcinak's killer but that an arrest couldn't make up for the loss to his family or community.

"There's going to be a big hole in Garrison," he said.

Calling hours will continue from 5 to 8 p.m. today and a memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Clinton Funeral Home, 21 Parrott St., Cold Spring. The Garrison Volunteer Fire Department is collecting donations for a fund dedicated to Marcinak's children.

Reach Rebecca Baker at rebaker@lohud.com or 914-694-5064.

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