May 21, 2021 By H. Nelson Spencer
It could be said that 80-year-old Mike Marko, known to many as “Sparky,” was born with proverbial grease under his nails. Marko, the president and owner of Mike’s Inc., is this year’s selection for the IMX Achievement Award. Mechanically minded from the outset, he was never destined to be a desk jockey. He had this innate ability to fix things.
Jim Marko with a young Mike Marko. (Photo courtesy of Mike’s Inc.)
“I was always pretty good with my hands, thanks to my dad. He was my mentor,” Marko said. When his father, Jim, was an engineer on the mv. Midwest Cities, a single-screw, 850 hp. towboat owned by Lake Tankers Corporation, he arranged for Mike to work on the boat because they were shorthanded, said his son, adding, “I was only 8 years old and still in grade school in East Alton, Ill., but I helped out when I could during the summers. I got my tankerman’s li
February 15, 2021 By H. Nelson Spencer
Capt. Larry Jamison.
When he retires from Osage Marine Services in Naples, Ill., where he has been general manager for the better part of a career that has spanned more than half a century, Capt. Larry Jamison is planning to return to a sport he played in the Navy some 60 years ago.
But first and foremost, about his career. To say he has a rich family heritage on the river would be an understatement. His father and four of his five brothers all worked on towboats. “One brother was an oddball and ended up working for the power company, but of the four who worked on the river, one was a chief engineer with Wisconsin Barge Line, and the others were all captains. My dad piloted for Blaske Barge Line, Riverway and Upper Mississippi River Towing. I also have an uncle and some cousins who work on the river. There’s a bunch of us out there,” he said.