Nice Article on Greg Marr

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/dec03/195149.asp

g.c.

I never met Greg Marr, but I first received his magazine when I lived in
Missouri, 18 years ago..It helped inspire me to buy roller ski's and ski the
Birkie the first time while living in snowless Joplin, Missouri, Now I live in
the Twin Cities and saw him at the Midwest Mountaineering Expo this past
November. I wanted to go over and thank him for the magazine and what it had
meant to me...but I hesitated and did not....lesson learned again....dont
wait....

I'm sure I am one of countless people who were impacted positively by his
magazine and enthusiasm...and who never expressed it to him....He will be
missed by many...

Stephen Bullard

(George Cleveland) wrote in message ...
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/dec03/195149.asp

g.c.

Copied below:

Marr gave voice to silent sports
Magazine founder, editor was advocate for outdoor activities for 2
decades
By TOM HELD

Posted: Dec. 25, 2003
Waupaca - Greg Marr wrote with a calm voice that fit his subject, the
silent sports that draw thousands of people outdoors to run and bike
and ski and paddle.

Optimistic and rational, it was a voice that carried loudly throughout
the Midwest and unified all those citizen-athletes propelled by their
own idiosyncrasies.

That voice has now gone quiet.

Marr, the founder and editor of Silent Sports Magazine, was buried in
Waupaca on Tuesday, four days after he collapsed and died of a heart
attack while cross-country skiing down the River Run on the Iola
Winter Sports Club Trails. He was 52.

Marr created Silent Sports in 1984 to fill a void, a lack of reliable
information about the outdoor sports that he loved. For two decades,
he filled the pages with tips on training, a calendar of upcoming
races and events, and stories about places to go to ski or run or
bike.

In his monthly columns, he firmly advocated for silent sports and
refereed disputes between their disparate enthusiasts.

"He kind of put the silent sports family together and said, 'these are
all good, healthy and sustainable things to do: let's keep it up,' "
said Gary Crandall, director of the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, one
of the nation's largest mountain bike races.

Through the magazine, Marr celebrated local champions, but he
connected directly with middle-of-the-pack competitors such as
himself. He talked to - and never down to - his readers.

"You're not going to replace him," said Lee Borowski, one of the
country's top cross-country ski coaches and a writer for Silent
Sports. "A bunch of people around here are capable of running the
magazine, but I don't think anybody will replace his impact or his
philosophy."

He lived every day to its fullest and wanted to help others do the
same, said Marr's wife, Martha Fullmer.

"He was very childlike in his enthusiasm; it was pure and it was
simple," she said.

Marr spread that enthusiasm among a number of interests. He loved
music and filled the couple's home with the voices of Bob Dylan and
Van Morrison. He listened intently, told great stories, and gave
friends unconditional loyalty.

Borowski developed a friendship with Marr over 20 years, finding
common ground as people from the city who found great pleasure in the
woods. Borowski lives in Brookfield and Marr grew up in Milwaukee.

He moved to Waupaca in the early 1980s with a degree in communications
from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a few years of
experience working on newspapers. He worked for a short time at the
Waupaca County Post, then created the magazine that will somehow
continue without him.

"I kind of see it as an emptiness," said Phil Johnsrud, a teacher in
Iola who grooms the sports club trails. "He was the magazine."

More importantly, he was a friend and an example.

Johnsrud remembers a day last spring when Marr grabbed a shovel and
spent six hours spreading snow on the Iola trails to cover spots that
had become bare in the warming weather.

His work that day fit what Borowski said about him: "He had a
sincerity and an honesty that was kind of rare. A lot of people do
things because they're trying to further themselves.

"Greg never did that. He did things because he thought they were
right."

In addition to his wife, Martha Fullmer, Marr is survived by
stepchildren Amanda Fullmer of Waupaca and David Fullmer of Wausau;
his mother, Johanna Marr of Eland; his brother, Bill, of O'Fallon,
Mo.; and his sister, Darlene Lorbiecki of Eland. He was preceded in
death by his father, George Marr.