George Robert Mariano, a Long Island educator who worked with local businesses to give West Islip High School students work experience, died Saturday. He was 82. “He taught us to be business-minded,” his daughter, Allison Mariano-Bonoff of Easton, Connecticut, said. “Not just to instill skills at a specific job but a work ethic.”

Mariano grew up in Brooklyn where his father, an Italian immigrant and laundry truck driver, taught him to be frugal and plan for the future, Mariano-Bonoff said. “His biggest thing was to always improve from one generation to the next,” she said. After receiving his undergraduate degree in business from St. John’s University, he sold cars. One day a woman who taught elementary school came to buy a car. Not only did he make a sale to Sally Burden, the two began dating. They married in 1962.