Victor Anthony Mariano

Victor Anthony Mariano, of Asheville, passed away at his residence on Monday, August 18, 2025.

Victor was born in in Alamosa Co, on June 21, 1958. His parents, Phyllis Mae Mariano(nurse) and the late Victor Herbert Mariano (science teacher and coach) then moved to Trinidad, Co to raise their family on a dairy farm.

Over the past decade, being born on summer Solstice day -the longest day of the year-Victor usually celebrated his birthday with a sunrise hike photographing the morning mountains of WNC.

Victor began his career as a UPS mechanic at the age of 21. Over the course of time, he worked his way up in the company, eventually becoming the corporate manager over systems technology and training at the Atlanta headquarters. Victor was responsible for creating and running the maintenance scheduling programs for the entire fleet of UPS trucks in the United States. After 35 years, Victor took his early retirement and moved to Asheville to be with Beverly and finish raising their children together.

Victor began running road races while living in Atlanta, GA, but his love of mountain trails began with the Sky to Summit race in Sky Valley, Georgia. This race will hereafter be dedicated to Victor as it is where he began his volunteer work with Run Bum races. He befriended the race director, and as a super volunteer, became an integral part of these races helping design, orchestrate, record timing, as well as working as videographer and photographer. Even when Victor was no longer able to run these races, he was always available to train, mentor, and support other runners, crewing them in across the finish line.

His involvement with the trail running community sparked Victor’s interest in trail maintenance, and he never looked back. For many years Victor devoted himself to the mountains of WNC, clearing and maintaining trails. The Colorado boy with the dairy farm work-ethic, was indeed difficult to keep up with in his retirement. While residing in Asheville, Victor became immersed in our trail community.

Victor was a section maintainer for two different portions of the MST. One from the Welcome Center to the Folk Art Center, the other, the trail at Sleepy Gap. In fact, Victor spent the entire pandemic going to Sleepy Gap every day. Most times, he single-handedly cleared, restructured, and made the trail more accessible to walkers and hikers. He poured his soul into that trail. Victor logged over 900 hours of trail work that year.

A few years ago, The Carolina Mountain Club honored Victor for achieving 2500 hours of service hours. At the time of the award, he had logged 2701 hours as a volunteer and continued on. Victor’s trail crew peers describe him as a machine while working along the Asheville corridor. He was a regular on the Thursday Crew and also on the Carolina High Peaks Monday Crew. Victor also did a lot of work in the Black Mountains and Mount Mitchell State Park. He actively supported the G5 group (a non profit that builds and maintains trails out of Old Fort) and helped clear trails for The Quest for the Crest and Hellbender 100 trail races. The Mountains to Sea Trail Foundation and The Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy were also blessed by Victor’s service.

Victor became an incredible photographer over the years as he wanted to share the feeling of amazement that the outdoors gave him. Many of his photos ended up on the Chime In segment of the WLOS evening news. You can view some of his work @my.dads.photography on Instagram. We know Victor to be a patient mentor and teacher, a loving husband, brother, and son, a caring father, a selfless friend, and a tireless volunteer. Through his service to others, he found his purpose. What a world it would be if we could all exemplify even a little of that.

As we’ve had a long season of goodbyes, the family is overwhelmed by the love and support of these groups. Victor was admired and loved by all the lives that he touched. What an inspiration his life has been!. So when summer solstice rolls around next year, grab your camera, go for a sunrise hike, and think of Victor.

In addition to his mother, Phyllis, who will be 90 years old this fall and still lives in Trinidad, CO, Victor also leaves behind his wife, Beverly Todd of Asheville; four children, Vicki Gordon (Josh), Emilie Denton (Chandler), Vincent Mariano, all of Colorado, and Liza Shropshire of Asheville, NC. Victor is also survived by three grandsons in CO; one nephew in WA and two sisters, Teresa Gonzales of WA and Tamzi Bramante (Joe) of FL.

If you would like to honor Victor, please consider giving back to the mountains of WNC by making a donation in his name to The Carolina Mountain Club (https://carolinamountainclub.org/)

A Memorial Service will be held at a later date and Groce Funeral Home’s Lake Julian team is assisting the family.