OBITUARY FROM ORANGE COUNTY (CA) REGISTER WEBSITE:

Richard Dale Marconi
Birth: 1934
Death: 2024
OBITUARY

Born to first generation immigrant families of both Ukraine and Italy, Dick grew up with his sibling, Bud, Ray and Ruth in Gary, Indiana. As a young man, he competed in the Golden Gloves and won the championship in Indiana all while being blind in his left eye. In the late 1950’s he moved, along with his wife Dorothy and son John to Southern California to pursue employment in the pharmaceutical world. After spending several years with Pfizer, Dick found his life’s mission in the nutraceutical world and established D&F Industries. His company at the time was the largest manufacturer of custom made vitamins, food supplements, and weight loss products. One of the things that made Dick so successful in this field was his pursuit of Eastern medicine practices and thus was one of the first people allowed to enter mainland China when it opened its doors to the United States. These ventures gave him the ability to formulate state-of-the-art products, giving good health and nutrition to people around the world. The biggest things good health and nutrition to people around the world. 

The biggest things that Dick will be remembered for were his generosity, his kind treatment of all people he came in contact with, his love of animals, and the saying of which he proclaimed on a regular basis, taught to him by his father before him “Learn, Earn, and Return”. And Dick did exactly that. In 1993 the Marconi Automotive Museum & Foundation for Kids, a 501(c)(3) charity in Orange County was established. As an avid car collector, Dick donated his amazing collection of high-performance street cars and race cars as he wanted to open up his collection so others could come and enjoy the vehicles. At the same time, he knew that his heart’s desire was also to help at-risk children’s charities in Orange County and beyond. By using the car museum in part as a special event facility, it had a dual purpose of public enjoyment and private events, all with the goal of helping raise money for agencies such as Covenant House California, Orangewood, CHOC, Juvenile Diabetes Research and many more.

Dick is survived by his wife, Priscilla, his son John, and grandchildren, Jessica, Nico, Vince, Monique and Colt, his great granddaughter Eliana, his sister Ruth, and brother Ray, along with many much beloved nieces and nephews. In memory of Dick, if you are inclined, we are forever grateful to Alzheimer’s of Orange County.

This information and the picture below were obtained from: https://www.ocregister.com/obituaries/richard-dale-marconi-san-juan-capistrano-ca/. The picture above was obtained from the 1952 HHS Memories yearbook, made available by the Lake County Public Library, at: https://archive.org/details/HOHS1952Images/.