Michael Stewart Passyn

Michael Stewart Passyn of Salisbury, who was born on November 21, 1969 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, passed away unexpectedly in his sleep on Sunday, December 19th, 2004. He had recently moved from Trappe. Michael loved his family, nine brothers and sisters, seven nieces and nephews, sports and he was extremely proud of his service in the Marine Corps and his fellow Marines. He was an All Mid-Shore football player for Easton High School and graduated in 1987. He played rugby at Salisbury State and continued playing rugby in various military leagues and adult teams. He graduated with honors from Salisbury State in 1991, where he was also a teaching assistant. He later received an MBA from the Coombes School of Business at the University of Texas in Austin in 2001. After graduation from Salisbury, Michael entered the Marine Corps and rose to the rank of Corporal. While awaiting admittance to Officer Candidate School he worked for T. B. Passyn & Sons, Inc. and Target Environmental Services. He attended OCS at Quantico, Virginia in 1995. He rose to the rank of Captain. He attended Infantry School at Quantico and was the Honor graduate at the Military Intelligence School at Fort Huachuca in Arizona. He was a sniper recon platoon leader. and a company commander on a UNITAS float to South America and Africa. He also served in various staff intelligence positions for the Second Marine Division and on special staff to the Secretary of the Navy. In 1998 he trained the Second Marine Division Super Squad competition team; when his team won the competition he was honored at Marine Corps Headquarters at 8th & I in Washington, D. C. by the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the Secretary of the Navy. The training program he designed allowed the Second Marine Division to win the Super Squad Competition in 1999 also. He transferred to a Reserve Unit in Austin Texas while attending graduate school. He completed his Marine Corps duty in August 2001 and returned to Easton to work in the family business. After September 11th he volunteered and was immediately recalled; he spent 21 months with the First Marine Expeditionary Force including 8 months in the Iraq Theatre, where he was the Officer in charge of Production and Analysis for Theatre Intelligence including the strategic planning for the march to Baghdad and the relaying of satellite intelligence to ground commanders on a 24 hour a day basis. He came home to Oxford in the summer of 2003 and returned to work in the family real estate and building businesses. At the time of his death he was President of Stewart Builders and a Member along with his brothers Ted and John in The Yorktowne Group, Michael will be remembered both for his wit and laughter and for his tremendous personal sense of honesty and integrity. He was the quiet leader and protector of the Passyn family and was always thinking of others before himself. Michael had recently received notification that he was about to be promoted to Major in the Marine Reserves. Michael lived life on his own terms and his one unfilled goal for himself was to marry and found his own family Michael is survived by his maternal grandparents Mr. & Mrs. Benjamin S. Beall, III of Pass Christian, Mississippi, his parents Theodore and Julia Passyn of Trappe, his brothers, Andrew of Plymouth Meeting, Pa, who teaches History and Government to Seniors at Chichester High School, his business partners Ted of Oxford, John of Easton and Ben, a Marine Cobra pilot, who lives in Hampstead, North Carolina, his sisters, Dr. Katherine Ball of Trappe, Dr. Julia Passyn of Birmingham, Alabama, Elizabeth who is attending law school at Catholic University, Juanita who is a 2006 candidate for joint J. D. and MBA degrees at Tulane University and Tallulah who is a freshman at Georgia Tech; also by two nieces Katherine and Olivia and five nephews Ted, Austin, Jack, Benjamin and Tyler. His family is devastated by their loss, especially his brother-in-law Dr. Robert Ball and sisters-in-law Kristen Grasshoff (married to Ted just two weeks ago in Key West Florida), Lisa Adams married to John and Diana Brotherton married to Ben. Much to their shock and dismay, Michael’s body was discovered Monday night in his apartment in Salisbury, after family members became concerned that he did not attend the Easton Town Council meeting that evening. Michael was an avid runner until the day of his death; a preliminary autopsy indicated he died of natural causes from an undetectable cardiac arrhythmia. Friends may call at the Fellows, Helfenbein and Newnam Funeral Home, P. A. Easton, MD on Monday, December 27th from 7 to 9 PM, where prayers will be said at 7:00 PM. On Tuesday, December 28th a Divine Liturgy is scheduled for 10:00 AM at St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral at 5th and Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Friends may call at the church after 8:30 AM. Burial with military honors will be held on Wednesday December 29th at Noon at Quantico National Cemetery, Quantico, VA. Memorial donations in Michael’s memory may be made to the Marine Corp Heritage Foundation, PO Box 998, 307 5th Ave., Quantico, VA 22134.

Michael Stewart Passyn

December 19, 2004