Donor Spotlight: Bob DeMarco
5/7/2020 2:19:00 PM | Chippewa Fund
Bob DeMarco got a break, and then made the most of it.
He's thankful to this day for legendary Central Michigan football coach Herb Deromedi, who in 1980 recruited DeMarco out of Monroe High School to Mount Pleasant where DeMarco would spend three years as the Chippewas' starting quarterback during a career that ended in 1984 and with a bachelor's degree.
And that's why DeMarco continually gives back as a charter member of the 1100 Club, a longtime benefactor the CMU football program, and as a significant contributor to the Chippewa Champions Center, the transformational facility which is now under construction inside Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
"The opportunity that (Deromedi) gave me by inviting me to school, and to come out the other side with a degree," DeMarco said. "It was the education that I got, academically, but also the education that I got from spending so much time with coach Deromedi because of his involvement with the quarterbacks.
"I got to learn from him not just football, but how he managed. He's a great manager of people, he's a great leader of people; he's a great manager of detail. I can't say enough good things about him."
DeMarco has continuously applied those lessons he culled from Deromedi – and the fortifying bonds he developed with teammates – as he has forged a highly successful career in the steel distribution business.
He now lives in Dallas and, as the Executive Vice President of Kloeckner Metals, oversees some 1,700 employees in 27 locales across the United States.
"I've called on the experience and the knowledge that I gained from (Deromedi) as a manager of people and as a manager of detail," DeMarco said.
He has also frequently drawn upon the deep-rooted bonds established with a brotherhood of CMU football teammates. He played alongside some of the legendary names in Chippewa lore, including Ray Bentley, Jim Bowman and Curtis Adams. In DeMarco's four years at CMU, the Chippewas posted a combined 29-13-2 record as they helped further ingrain the program as one of the very best in the Mid-American Conference.
Saturday's are for the record books and the highlight reels. The other six days of the week and the offseason – weightlifting, team meetings, living day to day with teammates -- that's where the links are melded, the memories solidified, and the love for the players, the program and the school are embedded.
That's a big part of the reason he generously lends his support to CMU football. He knows what it meant to him and his development as a young man, and he wants others to experience the same thing and come out, as he did, a better person.
"The relationships that you make with those guys that last to this day," DeMarco said. "For us, those are our formative years. I can go from person to person to person and know the struggle that they've been through, know the work and the effort that they put in, the dedication that they put in. The love you have for one another it is absolutely a resource you can draw on.
"That group of friendships is just the deepest well of resource and bond that you could ever imagine. When we get together it's like you were there yesterday. Time stands still when you're with these guys and that is fantastic."
It's important, DeMarco maintains, that others who have come after him and his teammates, and the generations to come, have the opportunity to seize on the same kinds of life lessons and experiences.
"I'm a believer that you leave things better than you find them," he said. "Central Michigan gave so much to me so I feel it's an obligation on my part to give back to what was given so graciously to me. I wanted to give back my scholarship; that's a personal thing to me. Whatever the value of my scholarship was/is – that was a goal of mine to give the scholarship back.
"Central Michigan gave me a thousand fold what it cost to send me there."
He's thankful to this day for legendary Central Michigan football coach Herb Deromedi, who in 1980 recruited DeMarco out of Monroe High School to Mount Pleasant where DeMarco would spend three years as the Chippewas' starting quarterback during a career that ended in 1984 and with a bachelor's degree.
And that's why DeMarco continually gives back as a charter member of the 1100 Club, a longtime benefactor the CMU football program, and as a significant contributor to the Chippewa Champions Center, the transformational facility which is now under construction inside Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
"The opportunity that (Deromedi) gave me by inviting me to school, and to come out the other side with a degree," DeMarco said. "It was the education that I got, academically, but also the education that I got from spending so much time with coach Deromedi because of his involvement with the quarterbacks.
"I got to learn from him not just football, but how he managed. He's a great manager of people, he's a great leader of people; he's a great manager of detail. I can't say enough good things about him."
DeMarco has continuously applied those lessons he culled from Deromedi – and the fortifying bonds he developed with teammates – as he has forged a highly successful career in the steel distribution business.
He now lives in Dallas and, as the Executive Vice President of Kloeckner Metals, oversees some 1,700 employees in 27 locales across the United States.
"I've called on the experience and the knowledge that I gained from (Deromedi) as a manager of people and as a manager of detail," DeMarco said.
He has also frequently drawn upon the deep-rooted bonds established with a brotherhood of CMU football teammates. He played alongside some of the legendary names in Chippewa lore, including Ray Bentley, Jim Bowman and Curtis Adams. In DeMarco's four years at CMU, the Chippewas posted a combined 29-13-2 record as they helped further ingrain the program as one of the very best in the Mid-American Conference.
Saturday's are for the record books and the highlight reels. The other six days of the week and the offseason – weightlifting, team meetings, living day to day with teammates -- that's where the links are melded, the memories solidified, and the love for the players, the program and the school are embedded.
That's a big part of the reason he generously lends his support to CMU football. He knows what it meant to him and his development as a young man, and he wants others to experience the same thing and come out, as he did, a better person.
"The relationships that you make with those guys that last to this day," DeMarco said. "For us, those are our formative years. I can go from person to person to person and know the struggle that they've been through, know the work and the effort that they put in, the dedication that they put in. The love you have for one another it is absolutely a resource you can draw on.
"That group of friendships is just the deepest well of resource and bond that you could ever imagine. When we get together it's like you were there yesterday. Time stands still when you're with these guys and that is fantastic."
It's important, DeMarco maintains, that others who have come after him and his teammates, and the generations to come, have the opportunity to seize on the same kinds of life lessons and experiences.
"I'm a believer that you leave things better than you find them," he said. "Central Michigan gave so much to me so I feel it's an obligation on my part to give back to what was given so graciously to me. I wanted to give back my scholarship; that's a personal thing to me. Whatever the value of my scholarship was/is – that was a goal of mine to give the scholarship back.
"Central Michigan gave me a thousand fold what it cost to send me there."