Jul. 24—Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness Executive Director Jim Marra has followed passions instilled in him by his parents, Ralph and Frances.

Marra said he is like his father, a lifelong educator, because he's always had a passion for educating others.

"One of my passions in life has certainly been teaching, mentoring and instructing," Marra said . "I had a lot of education bred in me and the idea of teaching and outreach was always kind of instilled in me. This [job] has given me the opportunity to continue to do that in a field that I'm fairly knowledgeable about."

One area of difference between Jim and Ralph is that Jim and his four brothers went into science fields while Ralph was interested in the humanities.

"Ironically, he was not that adept at science and math during his lifetime, but he instilled upon us that hard work and that interest and definitely that idea of giving it back to others here [at CNTA] and the volunteer projects that I'm involved with."

Marra added that his mother, Frances, helped him develop a passion for volunteering. He said she was once a United Way volunteer of the year in her hometown of Jamestown, N.Y.

Marra said he recently completed a six-year term on the board of directors at Aiken's Habitat for Humanity group. He served his last two years as chairman of the board.

Arie Murphy, executive director of Aiken's Habitat for Humanity, said Marra had been amazing, very supportive and was willing to do whatever needed to be done.

"He really helped me do a lot when he was chair, and then when he was on the board he helped me and supported me," Murphy said. "He was just very supportive of all the staff at Habitat ... Jim Marra was always one that you could count on to help you out in any way."

Marra called the Habitat program "unbelievably fulfilling" with an "unbelievable mission" of giving a hand up to worthy people who are able to get an affordable home.

"My wife and I have been very blessed, and while I was there we were able to sponsor a home to be built for a deserving family," Marra said. "That home was finished about a year ago and it was a wonderful, heartwarming event that we got to witness."

Marra is also involved with the Hook a Kid on Golf program; the Rotary Club and its reading program; and at his church, South Aiken Presbyterian.

He encouraged Savannah River Site employees to begin volunteering or working in the community when they are able to.

Marra began working as executive director of CNTA in 2017, around a year after he had taken an early retirement from the Savannah River National Laboratory.

He said he initially wasn't sure what it was about but after learning more, he felt the job was something he could do and learn to love, which he said he does.

He said he and his wife, Sharon, moved to Aiken and took jobs at the national lab in 1990, two years after graduating with a master's degree in materials engineering from Worchester Polytechnic Institute.

After graduating in 1988, Marra had taken a job at Digital Equipment Corporation.

"Many of us in my generation remember old DEC computers," Marra said. "They were the bomb of computers back in the day for universities, for scientific computing, for all kinds of things."

Marra said he joined the company just as Sun Microsystems and others had figured out that personal computers could be put together to create a network that would do many of the things that Digital Equipment's products would do, only cheaper.

When Digital began to struggle, Marra's brother, who worked at what is now the Savannah River National Laboratory, encouraged Marra and his wife to think about work at the Savannah River Site.

"This turned out to be the perfect place for us to get two engineering positions in the same location," Marra said.

At the lab, Marra worked on developing glass and ceramic materials to treat hazardous waste. He said he worked to improve the vitrification process at the Savannah River Site.

Vitrification is the process of converting high-level nuclear waste, known as sludge, into a glass-like substance that's placed into storage containers that will be moved into a permanent storage facility whenever the United States builds one.

While he worked at the lab, Marra earned a doctorate in materials and ceramic engineering from Clemson University.

He said it wasn't the preferred route to work on a doctorate while working full-time but added he won a scholarship from the Westinghouse Corporation that allowed him to go to Clemson for a year to get his doctorate.

Westinghouse operated the Savannah River Site and national lab — the contracts to operate them were later split — from 1989 until 2009.

Marra said he worked at the national lab for 26 years. He said he started as a young engineer, became a manager and then became a senior scientist.

"I had a very fulfilling career there," Marra said. "In fact, later in my career, what I did was a lot of international collaboration. I found that to be quite rewarding."

He said he worked a lot with Russian scientists in the early 2000s when the relationship between the United States and Russia was better. He added he also worked with scientists in France, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea.

That collaboration required a lot of travel, which Marra enjoyed.

"It was never too bad to be going to the south of France where I had dealt with people," Marra said. "That was quite a beautiful area."

Marra said Saint Petersburg, Russia was one of the most beautiful cities he had ever been in.

He received his undergraduate degree in ceramic engineering in 1986 from Alfred University, a private college in western New York that operates the Empire State's ceramic engineering program.

Ceramic engineering is a discipline of material science that studies the creation of materials from non-metallic materials like sand and glass. Common ceramics are dishes, water glasses, glass for smartphones — Gorilla glass was invented by Alfred alumni — and fiber optic cables.

Marra said he had some help deciding to major in ceramic engineering.

"Part of it was family legacy," Marra said. "I'm the last of five boys and of my four older brothers, two of them had selected this school and this discipline so I did have some kind of a little bit of guidance."

Marra added his brothers that attended the program were both successful, and the program, being a part of the state system, was also less expensive.

Although he was born on Long Island, Marra grew up in the western New York village of Lakewood.

"Right in the snow belt," Marra said while sitting at a conference table inside of the CNTA offices on Whiskey Road.

The snow belt is so-named because of its location east of the Great Lakes. The area of upstate New York is included because it is directly east of Lake Erie.

"It was quite a wonderful place to grow up and a very small town in a very rural area," Marra said. "It was a beautiful place right on a lake, Chautauqua Lake."

Chautauqua Lake is a 17-mile long lake that's around 2 miles wide at its widest point. The maximum depth is around 80 feet.

Marra said the lake was kind of like a finger lake in Upstate New York but wasn't officially classified as one.

He attended Southwestern Central High School, a public school that serves Lakewood, Busti, West Ellicott and Lucille Ball's hometown of Celeron.

One of his classmates at Southwestern was Laura Kightlinger.

Kightlinger is a comedian and television writer who served as a writer and consulting producer on "Will and Grace" and as a writer on "Two Broke Girls."

Another classmate was Dan Hoard, the play-by-play announcer for the Cincinnati Bengals and the University of Cincinnati's sports teams.

"He had a very good year," Marra said.

The Bengals represented the AFC in the Super Bowl and the University of Cincinnati's football team became the first non-Power Five school to make the college football playoff.

"He's a great guy," Marra said. "I grew up with him and played sports with him all through high school and everything. He's a good friend of mine."

Marra graduated from Southwestern in 1982.

He and Sharon have one child, Brian.

Brian is a rising senior at the University of Florida. Like his grandfather, Brian is going into the humanities.