John A. Marr

Obituary For John A. Marr

Central Cremation Services respectfully announces the passing of John A. Marr of Athens Georgia on May 16th, 2024.

The Catholic Center at the University of Georgia, 1344 S. Lumpkin St., Athens, GA, will hold a funeral service at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 25, followed by a reception.

John Marr, loving and beloved father, grandfather, uncle, and friend, passed away on May 16 at the age of eighty-six. He was born in 1937 to John and Margaret Marr, both first-generation Americans whose parents had immigrated from Ireland. He grew up with his older sister Kay Marr (later Lahey) and younger brother Dave Marr on Chicago’s Near North Side, attending Immaculate Conception Elementary School, St. Ignatius High School, and DePaul University. He served in the U.S. Army from 1960-62.

John married Kathleen Smith (now Stern) in 1968 and they had two sons: David (b. 1969) and Jason (b. 1970). They divorced in 1979 and John moved to Gary, Indiana, where he lived until returning to Chicago in 1985. He came to Athens, Georgia in 2002, where his son David and daughter-in-law Krista Dean lived, and his son Jason moved to Athens himself in 2017. John made countless friends and was an active parishioner in the Catholic Church wherever he lived.

John worked as a banker, a stockbroker, a laborer, a bartender, a salesman, a real estate agent and broker, and in other professions before finding his true calling as an addiction counselor in his later years. He was sober for more than forty years and was a revered member of the recovery community first in Chicago, and later in Athens. The work he did to help people struggling with substance use, whether as a volunteer or professionally, was the most important and impactful of his life. He was kind, patient, generous, humble, and forgiving, as his sincere faith and innate empathy guided him to be. He was unfailingly compassionate and resisted judging others for their mistakes, or when he disagreed with them or didn’t understand them. John never refused anyone’s request for help. He believed in the dignity of all people, and that we are morally bound to care for one another.

John loved dogs and grew to enjoy the company of cats. He was a great music fan and was well known by local musicians and in clubs, attending his last rock show on Valentine’s Day this year. John was an excellent cook and loved good food, especially sweets. But his greatest joy was his granddaughter Sally Marr, whom he adored, admired, and was thrilled by for the last nearly thirteen years of his life. Their relationship was deeply close and full of fun, and he lived in gratitude for his time with her.

John is survived by his sons Jason and David and daughter-in-law Krista; his granddaughter Sally; his niece Maggie Smith and nephews Brendan Marr and Patrick Marr; his cousin Michael Bartlett; and hundreds of friends, all of whose lives he made better by being a part of them.

The staff of Central Cremation Services is honored to be selected to provide end-of-life services.

(If you order flowers, you must obtain a delivery address from a family member. Please do not send flowers to the crematory)

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