Obituary: Capt. Max English

Capt. Max English, 83, former fleet superintendent for Marathon-Ashland, died April 5.

English spent his entire career with Ashland Oil, retiring from Marathon Ashland. He started as a deckhand about 1956, and by 1963 he was relief captain on the original mv. Valvoline. When Ashland operated the St. Louis Zephyr on bareboat charter for a few years, he served as captain, and then he went to the Aetna-Louisville for several years working opposite Capt. Gene Dent. He later was master of the Tri-State and brought the new Valvoline out of the shipyard in 1987.

He went in the office as fleet superintendent about 1999, and he retired a few years later. He and his wife moved to Louisville about four years ago due to the fact she had Alzheimer’s disease and both of their daughters lived there. His wife passed away late last year, but Max was doing fine until he fell and broke a hip about three weeks ago. He died of an apparent heart attack in his sleep.