Andre Coleman said his father knew how to fix almost anything.
The man who worked at Delta Air Lines’ TechOps maintenance facility spent time at home lovingly restoring a ‘64 Chevy Impala and also making improvements around the house.
And so when the man who helped raise Coleman, Mirko Marweg, died in a workplace accident last month at the Delta TechOps facility in Atlanta, Coleman decided on a certain way of looking at it.
“God probably needed something to be fixed in heaven,” Coleman said. “He had to take my old man.”
Marweg, 58, was Coleman’s stepfather, married to his mother, Scottie Ann Marweg, for 28 years. But Coleman considered him his father.
Marweg worked in the paint shop at Delta’s TechOps maintenance facility, according to Coleman. But on the tragic day of the tire explosion in Delta’s wheel and brake shop, Marweg was helping out on his day off to earn some extra money, Coleman said.
Marweg and Scottie Ann had been planning to take a dream vacation to Tahiti and Bora Bora, he said.
Coleman remembered Marweg as someone who changed his life. When Coleman said he was kicked out of school and his mother was upset with him, Marweg said, “Hold on. Let’s not beat him up. He’ll find his way,” Coleman said.
“I found my way,” he said. “I tried to model my life after him.”
Credit: Source: Andre Coleman
Credit: Source: Andre Coleman
Marweg was a U.S. Air Force veteran. Coleman entered the Navy.
Marweg is survived by four children along with his wife and siblings, his obituary reads. Born in Wuerzburg, Germany, he graduated from New Hope High School in Columbus, Mississippi, and attended Mississippi State University. His memorial service on Thursday afternoon at Rockdale Chapel in Conyers began with military honors.
Dozens of people who had worked with Marweg at Delta and at his previous job at MARTA filled pews, along with family members, friends and other mourners.
Raymond Clark, who worked with Marweg for years at MARTA, called him “the ultimate family man.”
“We would sit on our toolbox and talk about our kids,” Clark said.
Marweg’s granddaughter, Armanie Coleman, said he loved to see her compete in track and field.
“I’m his track star,” she said during the memorial service. “The rest of my seasons, for as long as I run, will be dedicated to him.”
Luis Aldarondo, who also died in a the incident at the TechOps facility on Aug. 27, was memorialized at services in Puerto Rico last weekend, according to funeral information online.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it is investigating the Delta TechOps incident. Delta said it is working with authorities.
Coleman said of his family, “everybody wants an explanation of the how did this happen.”
After the incident, Delta TechOps President John Laughter wrote in a memo to workers: “We are committed to sharing and addressing any significant findings to prevent an incident like this from ever happening again.”
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