Dennis Marcantonio

Dennis Marcantonio grew up in small town centered around steel production.

As a high school freshman at 13, Dennis attended an electronics technical school at night and earned an advanced degree, then took his first job with a TV Radio repair shop, all prior to graduating High School at 17 in 1966.

Attended Penn State University while supporting himself as a cable lineman.

Served in the Air Force Reserve, completed a 9 month advanced electronics training course in 6 months, then provided Automated Flight Control Systems Specialist services on the C124 Globemaster and remained with the 911th Military Air Transport Service (MATS) until honorably discharged.

Worked in civil engineering first as a survey team chain-man then advanced inside to a draftsman/designer position and was soon using early computers (remote mainframe access via teletype communication) which Dennis used to assist him in designing subdivisions for a large civil engineering firm that eventually moved away.

Took work for a very short time at a steel mill as a mill-write (mechanical and electrical repair technician), with a 20 year promotion waiting list, that position presented no real chance for advancement, and simply wasn’t a good fit.

Hobbies included fast cars, photography and SCUBA, Dennis holds the degrees: Certified Diver, Advanced Diver, Assistant SCUBA Instructor and Underwater Photographer.

Found work as a marine mechanic at a local boat yard and was certified as a technician by Mercruser and Evenrude. Provided underwater work during the installation of a marine railway, hand built the ‘jenny’ used to power that railway and also serviced heavy yard equipment until moving on to become self employed.

Operated two brand name full service stations (when those still existed), became a licensed State Inspection station and personally provided the full range of automotive repair services until the mid 70’s. Thoroughly enjoyed the time spent flying as a student pilot while he could afford it. In the late 70’s virtually every business in these cities was decimated by cheap steel imports. As the mills were shut down, all those well paying jobs supporting local businesses quickly disappeared. Since everything depended heavily upon the steady income of those workers employed either directly or indirectly by steel producing and steel related industries, the economy of these cities crashed. Dennis had the unfortunate experience of watching as his own and the surrounding towns so heavily involved with steel quickly decayed into rather desolate, poor rust belt cities. With mass layoffs came catastrophic economic changes, suddenly a large percentage of the population was out of work. In a kind of cascade failure, every business that either directly or indirectly depended upon those steel workers earning a decent living and supporting their communities, including service stations, were no longer sustainable!

Took a laborer position with an industrial heating firm. Skills and work ethic were recognized and within four months Dennis qualified for the advanced office position of Sales/Service Coordinator. In that capacity, handled equipment troubleshooting issues in house as well as in the field. Improved plant manufacturing process and unified product designs while streamlining overall production operations. Conceived, designed and oversaw the introduction of three major innovative additions to the companies overall heating equipment line. These included natural gas and propane fired equipment along with large trailer units that Dennis specifically designed for use in extreme climates at the request of a large oil company. These were shipped to Prudhoe Bay and placed in service by that oil company to provide temporary heat at isolated service buildings scattered along the Alaska Pipeline. While working there rewrote and updated the companies complete line of equipment technical and service manuals.

However, the unfortunate part of working for an industrial heating firm was that in the winter and almost without fail, when the weather was at its most foul, his duties far too often required traveling to places where the conditions and the weather were far worse. In the depths of winter Dennis troubleshot equipment at oilfields situated atop mountain ranges in the highlands of Wyoming, assisted NASA at its Goddard Space Flight Center and in one of the worst winters and while still under construction, serviced equipment at the Seabrook New Hampshire Nuclear Power Station. In early 82 after what had been a particularly bad winter, Dennis and his wife decided they had enough of the cold and after providing extended notice he resigned that position. Leaving the company in good standing with a glowing reference.

Moved to Florida where to support his young family Dennis returned to working at a commercial marine repair facility, while there was certified by Volvo Diesel. Duties entailed all aspects of large yacht repair/refurbishing including overhauling/installing engines and associated drive line running gear, installing navigational and control electronics, new fuel systems, water systems, hydraulic systems, electronic systems and wiring new as well as re-wiring existing master control panels.

Looking for more, Dennis attended a variety of entrepreneur gatherings and eventually in the mid 80’s, was offered a position with a robotics company that was interested in doing business with a Chinese entity. We met with their delegation in New York and Dennis assisted in negotiating the companies potential business ventures, both with and within China. After that robotics company went public it was sold and management decided to move operations out West to a much colder environment. Dennis elected to remain warm in Florida and continued to work on other ventures with a number of already established and some new Chinese contacts. Dennis and his wife traveled to and spent time in both the South and North of China. They imported containers of fireworks and were certified as pyro-technicians by an internationally known fireworks manufacturing company, both were qualified by that company to fire five inch firework star mortars.

Dennis accepted an interesting offer to work with the world famous artist Edna Hibel. For a number of years he worked with the company principles almost daily in an advisory capacity, photographed numerous highlights and personal appearances with the artist during high dollar sales events, wrote the original screen play for the video production ‘Hibel’s Russian Palette’ (credited) and managed several multi-million dollar wholesale/retail sales events staged by the parent company handling her original art works and various product lines.

Authored “Killing Strangers” and still writes when time permits, hoping to eventually complete his “Strangers” series of works.

During this time Dennis also exported a variety of equipment to multiple countries, and assisted Caribbean ministries in a number of their successful efforts to acquire a large variety of printing equipment.

As a sideline, for over 20 years Dennis has bought and sold a variety of items on eBay and retains a 100% positive feedback rating.

Working with his business partner (Dr. Greg Bartosiewicz) they conceived and developed a medical acupuncture device so unique it earned a US patent. They are currently working towards manufacturing and commercializing their product – Magnapuncture. Dr. Greg, a certified and trained acupuncturist, had a vision that acupuncture could be improved through the application of modern technology. Applying the appropriate engineering sciences and skills to accomplish that goal was simply not within his area of expertise. Dennis was and remains the nuts and bolts part of the equation, in cooperation with his partner they conceived and set about to accomplish what appeared to be a seemingly impossible goal. Over time Dennis formed a plan to achieve that goal, sourced the wide variety of parts required then CAD designed how those components would be employed to work in conjunction with each other. To facilitate a quick development turnaround of each new design change, he 3D printed a seemingly never ending variety of test components and prototypes, then worked out the wiring and assembled a series of ever improving prototypes. Always moving the project towards bringing Dr. Greg’s vision to fruition, the patented Mark 11 Magnapuncture unit is the successful result of their combined work and the achievement of Dr. Greg’s goal.

On a personal note: Happily married for almost 50 years, together they raised two successful children.

Mr. Marcantonio, who it appears will never truly retire, considers himself a Generalist. That is: One who with a little study can do almost anything, and do it pretty darn well.