By Kristin Davis

John Marcucci left high school to join the Marine Corps as a 10th grader. After stepping off the plane in San Diego in January 1959 for basic training, he never really slowed down — not even after a 33-year military career.

He retired from the military as a lieutenant colonel in 1992, settled in Columbia, S.C., and spent another 16 years working for the state while also throwing himself into a number of charitable and service organizations — which he continues to work with today at the age of 83.

“I needed to have something to do when I retired,” Marcucci said. “I didn’t want to be one of these guys who didn’t do anything and ended up dying too early.”

A couple of years before his military retirement, Marcucci had been initiated into the Masonry, the oldest fraternal organization in the world. By 1991, he was a Master Mason. When a fellow retired Marine friend invited Marcucci to a National Sojourners meeting, he became a member soon after. The organization of Freemasons promotes patriotism and is made up of past and present servicemembers. That appealed to him.

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Like Marines, “Masons take care of their own,” Marcucci said, “and that was something I was interested in.”

By the late 1990s, he added service to the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls — a Masonic youth service organization — to his plate. When he learned its scholarship fund lacked support, Marcucci made a substantial donation and ultimately set up an endowment that has since awarded $200,000. As a father and grandfather of boys, it was a nice change of pace to work with an all-girl youth group, he said.

Marcucci is also a long-time ROTC/Junior ROTC (JROTC) coordinator for the Columbia (S.C.) Chapter of MOAA, supporting 99 high schools and colleges with ROTC/JROTC awards across South Carolina. He spends hours preparing award certificates and often presents them himself to students around the state. Marcucci also designed two challenge coins that are fundraisers.

“It’s fun watching kids interact with each other,” Marcucci said. “They have fun together. They do everything together. That’s the way it should be.”

When Marcucci attends high school and college presentations, he dresses in full uniform that includes the Meritorious Service Medal with star and Navy Commendation Medal with Combat.

“The things I do now I want to do and I hope what I do pays back for the benefits in life I’ve had,” Marcucci said. “Life’s been good for me, and I want it to be good for others.”

Kristin Davis is a writer in Virginia.