John (Jan) Antoni Zdulski
ZDULSKI, BLICK, KUSTOSZ, ALBINOWSKI, KEDZIERSKA, MCNEAL, MCCRAY, WHITEHEAD, BARKER, REPLOGLE, BAIER, ABATE, WOS, LAZENCKA, WIERZBICKA, DYMARSKA, JAROSZ
Posted By: Sarah Fletcher (email)
Date: 10/16/2020 at 10:06:38
John (Jan) Antoni Zdulski of Iowa City, Iowa passed unexpectedly October 4th, 2020 from complications from long term heart disease. Jan (John) came into this world May 7,1934 in Warsaw, Poland to a loving family. All too soon his world dissolved into the horrors of World War II with the German invasion of Poland. During the Nazi occupation, by late 1941, his brother went missing and was presumed dead, his mother was ill and subsequently died in Nov of 1942. When the Warsaw Uprising began on Aug. 1, 1944, he was caught in crossfire and survived his wounds at age 10. One month later he and his sister Henryka witnessed their father being shot by Ukrainian Nazi SS and his body pushed into a burning building. Both he and Henryka were taken to a Reichsbahn forced labor camp in Ruhr Valley Hilden/Ohligs, Germany in rail cars. They were liberated April 17, 1945, by American troops from Patton’s Third Army. From there they lived in the Displaced Person (DP) or refugee camp in Solingen Germany, eventually discovering that their other two siblings had also survived.
Not wanting to return to the horrors of his youth he was relocated as an orphan to the USA where he lived in New York City until age 17 when he was sponsored by John Rohner of West Liberty to do manual labor and for training as a machinist from Rohner Machine Works. In 1954, a co-worker’s sister caught his eye and after much persistence, this Atalissa girl, Lulu Rose Blick became his wife for the next 65 years.
John and Lu raised a family of four girls, Teresa, Laura, Annette and Joyce in West Liberty, their son, Stefan, died at birth and is buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery.
John was a U.S. Army Reservist, serving his new country for 8 years. He eventually started his own heating and air conditioning business and remained in that business until retirement. He loved to travel, and when he could, he would visit Henryka and her family in Toronto Canada and his surviving siblings, Stefan and Jadwiga, and their families in Poland, as well as friends, his children and their families and members of his American family, and Florida. He enjoyed ‘teaching’ chess, many many Canasta nights with the Zinkula’s, trips to the Kosina ‘vineyard’ and time with his many close Iowa friends.
Beside him at his death were his beloved wife Lulu Rose (Blick), and daughters Laura and Joyce. Daughters Teresa and Annette were unable to be present due to distance.
He was preceded in death by his son Stefan, parents Antoni and Aniela (Kustosz) Zdulski, his siblings and their spouses, Stefan (Kazia) Zdulski, Henryka (Bronislaw) Albinowski, Jadwiga (Stanislaw) Kedzierska and two son-in-laws, Daryl McNeal and Mike Barker.
Survivors include his wife Lulu Rose, children Teresa McNeal, Laura (Randy) McCray, Annette (Chris) Whitehead, Joyce Barker, grandchildren Peter Whitehead (Amanda Phan), Gareth Whitehead, Alysa McCray, two close extended family members, Beth (Chuck) Replogle, and Dan Baier. Surviving nieces and nephews are Irena Albinowski, Christopher Abate, Alicja Abate, Helena (Albinowski) Wos, Danutia Lazencka, Tomek (Agnieszka) Lazencki, Jadwiga (Ryzard) Wierzbicka, Magda (Grzegorz) Dymarska, Monika (Piotr) Jarosz, Włodek
(Małgorzata) Zdulski, Daniel (Sylwia) Zdulski, Piotr (Anna) Zdulski, Kazik Kedzierski, Tadeusz (Dorota) Kedzierski, Agnieszka Kedzierska, Halina Kedzierska, Danuta Kedzierska, Arek (Magda) Kedzierski, Łukasz (Dagmara) Kedzierski.John will be buried in a private ceremony at Mount Calvary Cemetery, West Liberty, Iowa, U.S.A. on Thursday October 15, 2020.
Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service
Johnson Obituaries maintained by Cindy Booth Maher.
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