Marco and I had parallel Italian-New York City lives. We both met and fell in love with Americans who were literary types with a thing for Italy. Marco’s wife Abigail (Asher) and my wife Jenny (McPhee) met while living in Milan back in the ‘80s, but we didn’t really get to know one another well until we were married, back in New York, and with young children. Marco and I shared, coincidentally, a flight back to Italy for the Christmas Holidays, our young kids colliding with each other as they ran up and down the aisles, the airline crew far from pleased! From then on our friendship grew into a solid bond as we shared our old and new cultures and countries, traded stories and info about kids, schools, holidays, and work.
Marco, born and raised in Milan, was a devoted journalist, adoring the odd twist to a story, digging deep in his interviews to find the revealing details of a personality that expressed his or her truth.
As a fellow Italian living permanently in the US, I was always fascinated by the work he did writing for various publications including Panorama and Vanity Fair. His perspective and insights on both his Italian and American subjects were ones I could relate to but at the same time his stories consistently revealed something new to me. In the nearly twenty-five years Marco and I were friends, together we walked down our aligned itineraries of life and I was deeply gratified to have such a charming, intelligent, ironic, and kind companion along the way. Marco’s journey here has abruptly stopped on February 12th, far too soon, but I and my family will forever cherish the twenty plus years we shared with Marco and his family.
Marco is survived by his wife, Abigail Asher; his daughter, Susanna Asher De Martino; his son, Daniel Asher De Martino; his parents, Maria Adelaide Paolini and Francesco De Martino; his brother, Claudio De Martino (with Lorena, Luca, and Elena); his uncle, Cornelio Paolini; his sister in-law, Rachel Asher (with Andrew, Sam, and Theo) and his mother-in-law, Linda Asher.
A memorial service will be planned in the spring. In lieu of flowers, donations to the college fund (Ugift529.com; use code: T82-E5S) as well as photographs and stories (moc.liamg@7102beFseiromeM) are welcome
