My Homage to  Mr. Anthony Marques By Manuel Luciano da Silva, Medical Doctor January 18, 2003

On January 11, 2004, passed away, with 79  years of age, in the  Doylestown Hospital Pennsylvania , Mr. Anthony Marques,  one of the most enterprising Portuguese immigrants, in the last fifty years, in the United States of America.

He was born in the small town of Pinheiro da Bemposta , near Oliveira de Azeméis,  in the  north of Continental Portugal.   He started as an emigrant at the age of twelve when he  went from  his hometown to Lisbon, but at 23 he crossed the Atlantic and came to Warren, Rhode Island, where he began working with a pick and shovel.

In a few months he went to Newark, New Jersey,  and soon, with his dynamic approach to life,  he  began constructing small roads and soon took  upon his responsibility works of much larger scale, including highways and even airfields. He created five independent  companies in Pennsylvania,  specializing  in placing tubes for conducting gas, cables for electricity and telephones, and also water treatment facilities. Four of his original companies  are still in full swing: Lisbon contractors, Anjos Equipment, Alpha Construction and  Pollution Control.

The Portuguese  Bi-Weekly  Newspaper  “Luso-Americano” from Newark, New Jersey,  informed  that Mr. Anthony Marques employed, during many years,  several hundreds of Portuguese immigrants. He also gave much support to various activities concerning the betterment of the Portuguese American Communities.

Man of the Year

The newspaper “Luso-Americano” considered Mr. Anthony Marques “Man of the Year in 1977”, not only because of his  outstanding industrial achievements but also because of his  dedication and patronizing  of the Portuguese culture in U. S. A. and even in Portugal.

Mr. Vasco Jardim, the Director and owner of the “Luso-Americano”, because he knew that I had the highest  esteem  for Mr. Anthony Marques, asked me to be the main speaker  at the banquet in Mr. Marques’ honor. I gladly accepted the invitation and  went,  with great pleasure, from Bristol, Rhode Island,  to Newark, which is 250 miles distance!

"Hotel Rock of Dighton", with the rotating restaurant on the top, built and paid 

by Mr. Anthony Marques.  Inaugurated in 1977, in Oliveira de Azeméis, Continental Portugal 

The  evidence that Mr. Anthony Marques  really loved Portugal was demonstrated by the fact that he constructed  and paid for it,   a modern and beautiful Hotel in Oliveira de Azeméis, with the first rotatory restaurant in  the Iberian Peninsula!

What I did not expect was that he would give to his new Hotel the name of “Hotel Rock of Dighton”. Why?

In 1971, I published my first  book in English,  entitled “Portuguese Pilgrims and Dighton Rock”.  Mr. Anthony Marques ordered a copy and I sent him  an autographed one. He liked my book so much that he asked his secretary to order five more copies to offer to his five presidents of his five different companies. I never sent Mr. Marques a bill. His secretary called me by phone insisting that I send them a bill. I told her that  I was not sending any bill, that my books were my gifts  to him,  because of my high  admiration and esteem towards  Mr. Anthony Marques!

One week before the inauguration of the “Hotel Rock of Dighton” Mr. Anthony Marques invited me and my wife to go to Portugal for the festivities, but at that time, due to my medical responsibilities, we could not go to Portugal.

It was to me and to many more people a pleasant surprise to know  that  for  the inauguration  Mr. Anthony Marques had chosen for his hotel the name of ”Hotel Rock of Dighton”. There  were several  persons  that even thought that I had a partnership in the same “Hotel Rock of Dighton”…What I have is a deep sense  of gratitude to Mr. Anthony Marques   for the homage he as bestowed upon my original historical discoveries displayed  in my book “Portuguese Pilgrims and Dighton Rock”, sold out since 1976. I am also grateful for his connection of the history of  Dighton Rock with Oliveira de Azeméis and with  the Portuguese navigations.

Further more. We have now in Portugal three Replicas of the face of Dighton Rock made of  fiberglass,  manufactured  by my good friend Edward Medeiros and his co-works of the large TPI Company, in Warren , Rhode Island.

The First Replica is in the Gulbenkian Plaza near the entrance of the Portuguese Maritime Museum , at the Jeronimos, in Belem, Lisbon;

The Second Replica in the Museum of Oliveira de Azeméis, where I completed my high school;

 The Third Replica is on the patio of the  Library-Museum with my name in the village where I was born, Cavião,  Vale de Cambra, north of Portugal .  

The Library-Museum with my name  is due to the patronage of another large entrepreneur, Mr. Alvaro da Costa Leite  and his wife  Dona Augustinha,  to whom I am most grateful.

I had already invited Mr. Anthony Marques to visit with me my Library- Museum in Cavião, and  he accepted my invitation.  I am sad that because of his illness he was not able to do it. It would have been a happy and emotional occurrence for both of us.

I wish that his soul rests in peace!   Mr. Anthony Marques left on this earth several large works not only in Portugal but also in the United States of America!

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