Marion Navrat

Marion Leon Navrat died May 31, 2014, at the Jewish Home of Rochester in New York. He was 80 years old. He was the youngest of three sons born to Mike and Helen (Ptacek) Navrat in Marion, Kansas.

Growing up on the family farm amongst the wheat fields near the Czech community of Pilsen, Marion served as an altar boy at the Catholic Church there with his older brothers at the first Mass of Father Emil Kapaun. Marion graduated from Marion High School and then received his teaching degree from Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia.

He was a veteran, active in the Army from 1956 to 1958. After his service, he earned his master’s degree in psychology and in the 1960s moved to the east coast to work for the Rochester Public School System as a school psychologist.

Using the skills he learned from his mother, Marion often canned his own produce in Rochester and shared it with others. He enjoyed playing the piano and will be remembered by friends and family as a giving, kind, and thoughtful soul.

He is survived by his eldest brother, Robert Navrat, who currently resides in Marion as a retired farmer. Marion is also survived by his sister-in-law, Joan (Klenda) Navrat, and 10 nephews and nieces who reside in the Midwest, Idaho, and Georgia who send their prayers and gratitude to their late uncle for his caring and generous heart.

Marion Navrat was preceded in death by his parents and his older brother Leonard Navrat, who was a dentist in Wichita, Kansas.

Marion has donated his body to science for the next 2½ years at the University of Rochester Anatomical Gift Program for the benefit of medical students. He requested no memorial services but will be laid to rest in Rochester.