People Underestimate the Value of a Good Ramble

Uncle Anthony's Obit


Anthony Marchese, engineered music synthesizers
Sept. 15, 1925—Aug. 13, 2011

Published: August 17, 2011, 12:00 AM
Updated: August 17, 2011, 6:25 AM

Anthony C. Marchese, a World War II veteran, engineer and a member of the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame, died Saturday in Mercy Hospital after a short illness. He was 85.
Mr. Marchese graduated from Burgard High School and earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Buffalo.

A Buffalo native, he served in the Navy during World War II aboard the USS Franklin aircraft carrier that was attacked and sunk by Japanese forces on May 8, 1942.

Following the war, he returned to Buffalo and worked as a mechanical engineer at Bell Aircraft in Niagara Falls, where he was instrumental in the development of defense technology such as the Rascal Missile and the Jet Belt.

He later became employed at Oxford Inc. in Cheektowaga where he helped develop a guided missile system for the Department of Defense as well as other laser-based products.

In 1970, Mr. Marchese began working at Moog Corporation, where he was a design engineer for the Moog Synthesizer. As director of engineering there, he developed more than 25 electronic musical devices such as the Moog Liberation, the Mini- Moog and the synthesizer foot pedal.

In 2008, he was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame for his revolutionary accomplishments at Moog.

Mr. Marchese retired in the late 1980s and started his own consulting business, Marchese and Associates. He sold it in the mid-1990s.

Mr. Marchese also served as an Erie County Democratic Party committee person.
His wife of 65 years, the former Annie Petrillo, died July 31.

Surviving are two sons, Michael and Mark; and a daughter, Marcella Zynda.

Services will be held at 10 a. m. Thursday in Amigone Funeral Home, 6050 Transit Road, Depew.