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RIP Mitch Marmel
News broke early morning April 3rd, that 
Major Matt Mason passed away from complications of diabetes he's been suffering from for years.
Mitch was old school OG Furry, I've known Mitch since the mid eighties, we palled around for decades, often at various cons, occasionally when I was in the Philadelphia area, mainly for Philcon and early CFE. Plus with his wicked sense of humor, skills in photoshop and lettering. Mitch literally helped letter and place the text for the Red Shetland comics.
Pretending to be Eastern Soviet Block "Visitors" On the Philly and even D.C. rail systems, usually making locals look worried at us. Once while I was staying with Mitch, we were hitting Goldbergs Military surplus, I picked up a British 50s vintage Navy deck coat, Mitch popped a Navy captains hat on my head and a pipe and a bottle, while I played a crude Captain Haddock from the TinTin series, ranting like Captain Haddock , again , disturbing the locals.
While at DragonCon in 1997, I was getting shellacked sales-wise due to a piss poor layout in artists alley. I was about to head home with my tail between my legs, when Mitch called me up, asking me to attend the brand new Albany AnthroCon. I balked, saying that why attend a small con of maybe 100-125 people, plus I had no table. Mitch says "Ah, but I run the dealers room." I balk again..."Yeah So?" Mitch says "You now have a table, plus can stay in my room, AND, By your presence alone, will piss off Trish Nye.(Of ConFurence East infamy)" I replied "See you in 3 days!!" I literally made 4 times what I made at Dragoncon, and annoyed the crap out of Trish just being there . (Mitch, Ray Rooney, Kevin Duane and myself were blamed by Trish for the failure of CFE, when she should have looked in the mirror instead.) And even at the Gripe and Praise panel at the end of the con, Mitch and I were sitting, listening when somebody behind us said "We don't Mind Joe Nye, we just wish he left his dog home!(Trish)" The whole room erupted with a 'OOoOOooOoOHhHHhhhHhhh...*SNAP*', Mitch and I giggled our asses off, I have no clue to this day who said that.
At CF4, the post con Disneyland Raid ,a bunch of us took Disney virgins on Its A Small World ride. as we were exiting the Ride Mitch said "Everybody play dead now!" And we all sprawled 'lifeless' in the boat. As we were stopped, a cast member says "Oh Great, another boatload bored to death!" It was at that same visit, I bought a European military camouflaged jacket off another guest, Mitch pipes up "Only you Groat, could buy military gear in Disneyland." And every Disney Raid we 'saluted' the statue of Walt Disney at precisely noon, cause at the time, his right hand had that near correct position of a certain Austrian Corporal well known in History. Disney security finally confronted us, we pointed it out, they just went wide eyed with a 'OMG!!', and interestingly corrected the problem by the following year.
Mitch was also the Minister at my wedding at CF5 and performed a smurf fertility ritual. It worked! In less than a year my son was born.
Plus Mitch took delight in tormenting me when I visited him in Philly, his shower had hidden speakers in it, and he'd play Perry Como's "Hot Diggity Dog Diggity" at Max volume and the door locked from the outside! Plus he's decorate the guest bedroom with TellyTubby posters and lamps, along with Barney the Dinosaur crap. I artistically took my revenge on those items. Mitch has some up on his page.
While attending MFM, we hit a Jack Pirtles Chicken shack, it was an inner city joint, damn good chicken, but the locals were....entertaining. You place your order, they call you for your food. One woman behind the counter called out "Mitch...Mitch!" And this big black guy strode up "Thats me!" The woman bellowed back "You ain't no fat white dude!" Mitch cheerfully chimes "I'M the big fat white dude!!" and collected his order...and forever earned "Fat White Dude" moniker.
At Coletta's Italian Restaurant, every Saturday night during MFM, We'd raid the 'Elvis Room' (Elvis apparently frequented the place) We became the "Dinner with the Dons" a Mafia themed dinner, right down to Tuxedo T-shirts, at first the staff called us the "RedNeck Wedding Party" which we accepted with honor! Now they seriously welcome us. Mitch was Don Fats.
Mitch was also in charge of the artists jam room at MFM, frequently with his train set, running various trains. His smile infectious.
But the last couple years took a toll on Mitch, losing his right foot to Diabetes, later his toes on his left foot in 2025. He was unable to attend MFM in 2025, and we Skyped our Dinner with the Dons with Mitch to insure he was with us. But the visits to the hospital increased in number and frequency. His face looked very gaunt to me in 2024, I told both
EOCostello and 
Walt46 "I have a very bad feeling about this."
Sadly it happened. My Friend is gone. I'm heartbroken losing him.Mitch earned a rare full color memorial. So long you magnificent Bastard!! God Speed you Mitch. Say hi to McMoo, Shep, Scott, Vickie, Tugrik for me!
Major Matt Mason passed away from complications of diabetes he's been suffering from for years.Mitch was old school OG Furry, I've known Mitch since the mid eighties, we palled around for decades, often at various cons, occasionally when I was in the Philadelphia area, mainly for Philcon and early CFE. Plus with his wicked sense of humor, skills in photoshop and lettering. Mitch literally helped letter and place the text for the Red Shetland comics.
Pretending to be Eastern Soviet Block "Visitors" On the Philly and even D.C. rail systems, usually making locals look worried at us. Once while I was staying with Mitch, we were hitting Goldbergs Military surplus, I picked up a British 50s vintage Navy deck coat, Mitch popped a Navy captains hat on my head and a pipe and a bottle, while I played a crude Captain Haddock from the TinTin series, ranting like Captain Haddock , again , disturbing the locals.
While at DragonCon in 1997, I was getting shellacked sales-wise due to a piss poor layout in artists alley. I was about to head home with my tail between my legs, when Mitch called me up, asking me to attend the brand new Albany AnthroCon. I balked, saying that why attend a small con of maybe 100-125 people, plus I had no table. Mitch says "Ah, but I run the dealers room." I balk again..."Yeah So?" Mitch says "You now have a table, plus can stay in my room, AND, By your presence alone, will piss off Trish Nye.(Of ConFurence East infamy)" I replied "See you in 3 days!!" I literally made 4 times what I made at Dragoncon, and annoyed the crap out of Trish just being there . (Mitch, Ray Rooney, Kevin Duane and myself were blamed by Trish for the failure of CFE, when she should have looked in the mirror instead.) And even at the Gripe and Praise panel at the end of the con, Mitch and I were sitting, listening when somebody behind us said "We don't Mind Joe Nye, we just wish he left his dog home!(Trish)" The whole room erupted with a 'OOoOOooOoOHhHHhhhHhhh...*SNAP*', Mitch and I giggled our asses off, I have no clue to this day who said that.
At CF4, the post con Disneyland Raid ,a bunch of us took Disney virgins on Its A Small World ride. as we were exiting the Ride Mitch said "Everybody play dead now!" And we all sprawled 'lifeless' in the boat. As we were stopped, a cast member says "Oh Great, another boatload bored to death!" It was at that same visit, I bought a European military camouflaged jacket off another guest, Mitch pipes up "Only you Groat, could buy military gear in Disneyland." And every Disney Raid we 'saluted' the statue of Walt Disney at precisely noon, cause at the time, his right hand had that near correct position of a certain Austrian Corporal well known in History. Disney security finally confronted us, we pointed it out, they just went wide eyed with a 'OMG!!', and interestingly corrected the problem by the following year.
Mitch was also the Minister at my wedding at CF5 and performed a smurf fertility ritual. It worked! In less than a year my son was born.
Plus Mitch took delight in tormenting me when I visited him in Philly, his shower had hidden speakers in it, and he'd play Perry Como's "Hot Diggity Dog Diggity" at Max volume and the door locked from the outside! Plus he's decorate the guest bedroom with TellyTubby posters and lamps, along with Barney the Dinosaur crap. I artistically took my revenge on those items. Mitch has some up on his page.
While attending MFM, we hit a Jack Pirtles Chicken shack, it was an inner city joint, damn good chicken, but the locals were....entertaining. You place your order, they call you for your food. One woman behind the counter called out "Mitch...Mitch!" And this big black guy strode up "Thats me!" The woman bellowed back "You ain't no fat white dude!" Mitch cheerfully chimes "I'M the big fat white dude!!" and collected his order...and forever earned "Fat White Dude" moniker.
At Coletta's Italian Restaurant, every Saturday night during MFM, We'd raid the 'Elvis Room' (Elvis apparently frequented the place) We became the "Dinner with the Dons" a Mafia themed dinner, right down to Tuxedo T-shirts, at first the staff called us the "RedNeck Wedding Party" which we accepted with honor! Now they seriously welcome us. Mitch was Don Fats.
Mitch was also in charge of the artists jam room at MFM, frequently with his train set, running various trains. His smile infectious.
But the last couple years took a toll on Mitch, losing his right foot to Diabetes, later his toes on his left foot in 2025. He was unable to attend MFM in 2025, and we Skyped our Dinner with the Dons with Mitch to insure he was with us. But the visits to the hospital increased in number and frequency. His face looked very gaunt to me in 2024, I told both
EOCostello and 
Walt46 "I have a very bad feeling about this." Sadly it happened. My Friend is gone. I'm heartbroken losing him.Mitch earned a rare full color memorial. So long you magnificent Bastard!! God Speed you Mitch. Say hi to McMoo, Shep, Scott, Vickie, Tugrik for me!
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Thank you for the write up & the stories Tom. I am glad I had the honor, privilege & pleasure of getting to know him (not only from here, but from a Scale Modeling page as well - his Catlass especially was one of the models I always found most interesting), Mitch was a great guy, and a great friend, he will be greatly missed.
Thanks so much for the tribute and the eulogy. Never met him in person, but I recall having a good time chatting with him here in the comments over the years; he was one of the few folks(along with you, I believe) who I let know when I jumped accounts to this one. His quietly humorous style and ability to 'tell it straight' with a dash of humor was something I always appreciated and never failed to get a chuckle out of me.
I might not be one of the Old Guard/First Fandom, but he's gonna be sorely missed. I know he's up there right now, giving the kittehs some pats and swapping some wild stories.
I might not be one of the Old Guard/First Fandom, but he's gonna be sorely missed. I know he's up there right now, giving the kittehs some pats and swapping some wild stories.
Wonderful tribute for him Rabbi. Wish I'd been able to meet him in person, we'd been in Mel's DBU and goofing around on the old Furnet BBS stuff back in the day and then here and DA over the years. I was working on something Temp Corps related, didn't get a chance to finish it due to illness in my family and a death. Was getting back to working on it when I saw the news this morning.
Hitting me a bit hard. Laid my stepmom's ashes to rest last weekend. I'm just a couple of years younger than MMM was. I'm getting to be the age where you start losing friends suddenly. Just realized its been 3 and a half years since I found I was diabetic - had ignored the signs and also had blood pressure problems and a blockage in my left corartid artery. Have everything in check now.
I'm eleven years older than him, he was an okay guy and like all the others will be missed. This makes the seventh person I have lost to that sugar diseases while I battle it myself, along with things like kidney Failure 3 and other minor problems. Like having a plastic lens in my left eye.
So I outlasted yet another Grey Fur OG, being a white furred OG myself.
So I outlasted yet another Grey Fur OG, being a white furred OG myself.
I’m really sorry rabbi-tom. I read the entire post and Mitch really was a super special guy. I’m literally at the ICU right now to see a friend of mine that is much like Mitch. He’s only got another week or so to live. At least I’m here for him and will have the chance to say goodbye. Sorry for your loss my friend. I completely understand the feeling right now.
Quite a lovely tribute to Triple M.
I have my own memories of him. Some include the times he showed a lot of love for my red panda, Pri Fukui, which include being the only person I'd allowed to get her pregnant (not canon, but I appreciate the attention nonetheless). And even I remember making fan edits of his pool pics because they were so fun to look at.
I have two special mementos from our online friendship; a pic of an OC he planned on using named Casey (after my initials) and Zenobia (the zebra OC he gave to me).
I have my own memories of him. Some include the times he showed a lot of love for my red panda, Pri Fukui, which include being the only person I'd allowed to get her pregnant (not canon, but I appreciate the attention nonetheless). And even I remember making fan edits of his pool pics because they were so fun to look at.
I have two special mementos from our online friendship; a pic of an OC he planned on using named Casey (after my initials) and Zenobia (the zebra OC he gave to me).
I saw that photo, and yes, two days before his passing. But you could see it in his face how gaunt he looked.
It hurt just looking at that, reminded me of McMoo the month before his passing when I last saw him. Though Cancer took him out. 7 months prior he looked strapping and decent. A month before his death, he looked like he just did 5 years in a WW2 Japanese POW camp, hunched over, gaunt, lost over half his weight, voice barely there. I knew right then and there it was the last time I'd see him.
It still hurts losing Mitch. MFM will never be the same.
It hurt just looking at that, reminded me of McMoo the month before his passing when I last saw him. Though Cancer took him out. 7 months prior he looked strapping and decent. A month before his death, he looked like he just did 5 years in a WW2 Japanese POW camp, hunched over, gaunt, lost over half his weight, voice barely there. I knew right then and there it was the last time I'd see him.
It still hurts losing Mitch. MFM will never be the same.
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