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Former Mother Lode District Attorney Passes

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Sonora, CA – The Mother Lode lost one of its longest-practicing attorneys last Friday.

Thomas Marovich, 76, succumbed to leukemia last Friday in Sacramento, at the University of California, Davis Medical Center. His passing followed a seven-month battle that included a brief remission. He was still active in his practice until his death, according to Sharon, his wife of 43 years; although in later years he cut back on his practice a bit to free up more personal time, he never retired. “My husband practiced law for 50 years and he loved it. Retirement simply did not occur to the man. He loved doing what he did…was capable…and wanted to do it, so that retirement was simply not something that he considered.”

“A kind, gentle, intelligent man who loved the law,” according to his wife Sharon, Marovich served through most of the 1970s as Tuolumne County’s District Attorney. Born in Madera, he attended University of the Pacific and graduated from Hastings College of the Law in 1964. After a couple of years serving as a deputy counsel in San Joaquin County, he was hired and subsequently appointed assistant district attorney by the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors. In October 1971, following the resignation of his predecessor, he was appointed County DA and ran unopposed in 1974. After deciding in 1978 to enter private practice, he established his own law office in early 1979.

During Marovich’s tenure as county DA, Sharon notes that he helped form the Mother Lode Women’s Crisis Center, where battered women and their children could be safe. “Until that time, there was no facility, really, no outreach for women and children who were abused, and he worked with a local group of women to form the [center],” she remembers. “He also broke the gender barrier in the DA’s office by hiring the first female deputy district attorney in the history of Tuolumne County — that was Eleanor Provost, who is now a Superior Court Judge,” she adds.

Marovich’s interest in a variety of legal fields led his private practice, according to his widow. He practiced in both Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, working on a wide variety of cases, and particularly enjoyed criminal law. In 2011, the State Board of Legal Specialization honored him for his 35 years of practice.

“We had a very long marriage…and I consider myself very privileged to have shared those years with him…he was quite a guy,” Sharon states. Marovich left no children. Besides his wife, he is survived by a brother and sister-in-law that both live out of state as well as numerous nieces and nephews. According to his wishes, no memorial service will be held and inurnment will be private. Those who wish to remember Marovich may choose to do so through a donation to the Tuolumne County Bar Association’s Scholarship Fund, c/o Frank Russell (34 N. Washington St., Sonora); the Humane Society of Tuolumne County, or the Delta Blood Bank.

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