Joseph R. DeMarco, prolific writer, award-winning LGBTQ activist, and retired librarian at St. Joseph’s Prep, has died at 78
He wrote more than a dozen books, six about fictional Philly private detective Marco Fontana and two about PI partners Doyle McCann and Kord Verlangen.
Joseph R. DeMarco, 78, of Philadelphia, author of the Marco Fontana, and Doyle and Kord detective mystery series, the Vampire Inquisitor books, and many stories, articles, essays, and columns about LGBTQ life in Philadelphia, high school history teacher, retired librarian at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, editor, and mentor, died Sunday, March 29, of cardiac arrest at his home.
Born and reared in South Philadelphia’s Little Italy in the 1950s and ‘60s, Mr. DeMarco earned college degrees at St. Joseph’s, Temple, and Drexel Universities, and taught high school history classes in Camden and Philadelphia for more than 30 years. He also wrote more than a dozen books, six about fictional Philly private detective Marco Fontana and two about fictional PI partners Doyle McCann and Kord Verlangen.
Most often, Mr. DeMarco’s detectives take on mysterious cases while simultaneously navigating their complicated lives in the Philadelphia gayborhood. His stories and columns on cultural and social issues also appeared in the Philadelphia Gay News, the Advocate, and other LGBTQ publications.
In 1983, his article “Gay Racism” was named best feature by the Gay Press Association. “City life,” he said on his website, josephdemarco.com, “is great but not for the faint of heart.”
Mr. DeMarco also wrote plays, poetry, and blogs, and many of his stories and essays are included in celebrated anthologies. He even contributed a pasta sauce recipe to a popular cookbook.
He was editor at the weekly Philadelphia Gayzette and New Gay Life in the 1970s, and wrote his books under the name Joseph R.G. DeMarco.
A longtime member of the Gay Activists Alliance, Mr. DeMarco helped establish what is now the William Way LGBT Community Center in 1976. Over 50 years, he steered the center and nurtured its library into one of the country’s top LGBTQ historical collections.
He earned a Founders Award from center colleagues in February and told the Gay News then that the center “lets people know that we’re here, that we’re all right, that it’s all right to be here, and it’s all right to be yourself.”
Center colleague Bob Skiba told the Gay News: “He was not only talented but contributed to the larger community.” Mr. DeMarco’s younger sister, Louise Kelly, said: “It was a quiet service that he provided. He had ideas about being gay.”
After college, Mr. DeMarco taught history for a few years at Camden High School and the old Edward Bok High School. He went to St. Joseph’s Prep in 1988, taught history, and developed the library into a valuable resource for teachers and the place to be on campus.
He mentored students and other teachers, and supervised the school’s popular Model United Nations program, the Library Club, and several student publications. He also taught at St. Joseph’s University and online for Widener University after he retired from the Prep in 2004.
“I don’t think anyone at St. Joseph’s Prep was a more positive influence in the lives of his students than Mr. DeMarco,” a former member of the Prep’s Library Club said in an online tribute.
Other former students called him “gentle, kind, and considerate.” They praised his “kindness and generosity” and admired “his willingness to take on difficult challenges and stick with them.”
The oldest of three children, Joseph Rocco DeMarco was born June 18, 1947. He was an altar boy and an Eagle Scout, and his sister described him as “intelligent, spirited, and playful with a good imagination.”
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He graduated from the old St. John Neumann Catholic High School in 1965 and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at what is now St. Joseph’s University in 1969 and master’s degrees later at Temple and Drexel.
He reveled in his Italian heritage and lived and studied in Florence for a time. He also attended schools in New York and the Czech Republic.
Mr. DeMarco was an engaging conversationist, and he spoke English, Italian, German, and some Chinese. He lived briefly in Montreal and served as best man at the wedding of his younger brother, Salvatore. “Joseph was always there for me and always had a way to help me make sense of things,” his brother said.
He met Yun Li in 2003, and they were companions for more than two decades. His former partner, Bill Philips, died earlier.
Mr. DeMarco collected art and figurines, played billiards and bocce, and enjoyed music, especially movie soundtracks. In tributes, friends said he “loved Philly and its people fiercely” and called him “truly accomplished, courageous, and inspiring.”
He read all the time. “Joe’s home was a library, and that is not an exaggeration,” Li said. “I lived in the Dark Ages before I met him. He was my Italian Renaissance man.”
In addition to his companion and siblings, Mr. DeMarco is survived by other relatives.
Services were held earlier.
Donations in his name may be made to Shriners Hospital for Children, 2900 N. Rocky Point Dr., Tampa, Fla. 33607; Stonewall National Museum, Archives & Library, 1300 E. Sunrise Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. 33304; and the Monastery of St. Clare, 1271 Langhorne Newtown Rd., Langhorne, Pa. 19047.