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August 8, 2011
Services
Friends may visit with the family from 10:30 AM – 12:30 AM on Saturday, August 13, 2011 at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne.
A Funeral Mass will be offered, following the visitation hours, on Saturday 1 PM at St. Mary RC Church, 17 Pompton Ave., Pompton Lakes.
Chris Vergara age 78 of Port Orange, FL, formerly of Wayne, died Monday, August 8, 2011. He was born in Mexico and came to this country at the age of seven to live with his aunt Amelia and Uncle Frank Grosse Borger. They dedicated themselves to raising Chris as their son. He graduated from Fort Lee High School with the Class of 1952. Always mechanically minded Chris went on to graduate from Lincoln Technical Institute.
Chris had an adventurous soul and decided to check out San Francisco, California. He traveled from Fort Lee and got a job as a welder in a ship yard. While there he roomed in a boarding house on Oak Street in San Francisco overlooking the Golden Gate Park. A few floors below him was a cute girl named Maria. Chris would lower notes from his window to hers with little bunches of grapes attached. Their first date was to an amusement park where they went through the Tunnel of Love, and where Maria was terrified on the Ferris Wheel as it looked like she was going to get dropped into the ocean. They dated for two weeks before Chris asked her to marry him. She faked that she didn’t understand him, as Maria only spoke Spanish and Chris only spoke English. He asked again, in Spanish, and she said no. She told him she liked him but how could you love someone enough in two weeks to marry them? He said “I will teach you to love me” and they did, soon after, marry. They have enjoyed fifty-six years of loving and caring marriage during which Chris did teach Maria to love him very much.
He was drafted into the US Army in 1956 and served two years in Germany before returning home. He worked for Eastern Cyclone in Clifton and soon started his own company Hudson Hydraulics, that specialized in building tow trucks, first in Lodi and then moving to Little Ferry. He lived in Wayne for many years before retiring in 1999 and moving to Port Orange, Florida. In the Wayne area he was a member of the Wayne Elks Lodge 2181 and a former member of Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church, Wayne.
He is the loving husband of fifty-six years to Maria (Abellan) Vergara; devoted father of Amelia Sorce and her husband Salvatore of Pompton Lakes, Christopher Adam Vergara and his wife Tammy of Brooksville, FL, and Pete Vergara of White Plains, NY; cherished grandfather of Christopher R. Koeppen, Amelia H. Vergara and Christopher A. Vergara; very proud great-grandfather of Ella Grier Koeppen.
If you would like to send a private condolence directly to the family use this condolence section.
Friends may visit with the family from 10:30 AM – 12:30 AM on Saturday, August 13, 2011 at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne.
A Funeral Mass will be offered, following the visitation hours, on Saturday 1 PM at St. Mary RC Church, 17 Pompton Ave., Pompton Lakes.
August 8, 2011
Services
Friends may visit with the family from 10:30 AM – 12:30 AM on Saturday, August 13, 2011 at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne.
A Funeral Mass will be offered, following the visitation hours, on Saturday 1 PM at St. Mary RC Church, 17 Pompton Ave., Pompton Lakes.
Chris Vergara age 78 of Port Orange, FL, formerly of Wayne, died Monday, August 8, 2011. He was born in Mexico and came to this country at the age of seven to live with his aunt Amelia and Uncle Frank Grosse Borger. They dedicated themselves to raising Chris as their son. He graduated from Fort Lee High School with the Class of 1952. Always mechanically minded Chris went on to graduate from Lincoln Technical Institute.
Chris had an adventurous soul and decided to check out San Francisco, California. He traveled from Fort Lee and got a job as a welder in a ship yard. While there he roomed in a boarding house on Oak Street in San Francisco overlooking the Golden Gate Park. A few floors below him was a cute girl named Maria. Chris would lower notes from his window to hers with little bunches of grapes attached. Their first date was to an amusement park where they went through the Tunnel of Love, and where Maria was terrified on the Ferris Wheel as it looked like she was going to get dropped into the ocean. They dated for two weeks before Chris asked her to marry him. She faked that she didn’t understand him, as Maria only spoke Spanish and Chris only spoke English. He asked again, in Spanish, and she said no. She told him she liked him but how could you love someone enough in two weeks to marry them? He said “I will teach you to love me” and they did, soon after, marry. They have enjoyed fifty-six years of loving and caring marriage during which Chris did teach Maria to love him very much.
He was drafted into the US Army in 1956 and served two years in Germany before returning home. He worked for Eastern Cyclone in Clifton and soon started his own company Hudson Hydraulics, that specialized in building tow trucks, first in Lodi and then moving to Little Ferry. He lived in Wayne for many years before retiring in 1999 and moving to Port Orange, Florida. In the Wayne area he was a member of the Wayne Elks Lodge 2181 and a former member of Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church, Wayne.
He is the loving husband of fifty-six years to Maria (Abellan) Vergara; devoted father of Amelia Sorce and her husband Salvatore of Pompton Lakes, Christopher Adam Vergara and his wife Tammy of Brooksville, FL, and Pete Vergara of White Plains, NY; cherished grandfather of Christopher R. Koeppen, Amelia H. Vergara and Christopher A. Vergara; very proud great-grandfather of Ella Grier Koeppen.
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