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February 24, 2012
Services
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Tuesday, February 28, 2012 from 10 AM – 12 noon. Funeral Services will be held at 12 noon, immediately following the visiting hours. Entombment will be at the Laurel Grove Memorial Park Mausoleum in Totowa.
Frank J. Gottas, age 73 of Wayne, died on Friday, February 24, 2012.
Frank was raised in Newark where he graduated high school before joining the Marine Corps. At a young age, his mother taught him how to bake and he really enjoyed it. The Marine Corps apparently liked his baking too, and he served most of his time in the service baking for his fellow troops.
After returning home, he settled in Cranford, NJ and began working for Drakes at their Irvington bakery. He eventually moved to Wayne and continued to work for Drakes in their Wayne bakery until his retirement in 2001, after a career of thirty five years.
When he wasn’t working, Frank loved to go fishing. He had a boat and would often take friends out along the Jersey Shore to go fluking. If he wasn’t fishing, he was working on his garden. Gardening was a year-round affair for Frank. He would start everything from seeds, growing them first indoors and then transferring them outside when spring came. He always had hundreds of plants in his garden and took great pride in nursing them all along. His vegetable garden was his true labor of love. He also helped his wife Helga with all of her flowers. He started them all out as seedlings and nurtured them until they were hardy enough to be planted outside. One year, they planted more than eight hundred impatiens in their yard, all of them started from seeds.
Frank met his wife Helga (nee Wachtel) while working at Drakes. They were on the night shift together and on one evening they stopped at Gabriel’s in Mountain View to have a drink. They hit it off and were married in 1983. They honeymooned at the Jersey Shore and have enjoyed nearly thirty years of loving marriage together. Frank began to get ill right after retiring and Helga did everything she could for him, and gave him the best care he could have asked for during the past several years.
Frank is survived by his devoted wife Helga of Wayne, his sons; William Gottas of Texas, Joseph Gottas of Cranford, NJ, Pearce Hertzberg of Tennessee, his daughters; Beverly Newberger and her husband Seth of Harrisburg, NC, and Taryn Hertzberg of Kentucky, his sister; June Bruen and her husband Buddy of Manchester, NJ, four grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
As expressions of sympathy, if friends so wish, donations may be made in Frank’s memory to American Lung Association, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 800. Washington, DC 20004.
If you would like to send a private condolence directly to the family use this condolence section.
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Tuesday, February 28, 2012 from 10 AM – 12 noon. Funeral Services will be held at 12 noon, immediately following the visiting hours. Entombment will be at the Laurel Grove Memorial Park Mausoleum in Totowa.
February 24, 2012
Services
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Tuesday, February 28, 2012 from 10 AM – 12 noon. Funeral Services will be held at 12 noon, immediately following the visiting hours. Entombment will be at the Laurel Grove Memorial Park Mausoleum in Totowa.
Frank J. Gottas, age 73 of Wayne, died on Friday, February 24, 2012.
Frank was raised in Newark where he graduated high school before joining the Marine Corps. At a young age, his mother taught him how to bake and he really enjoyed it. The Marine Corps apparently liked his baking too, and he served most of his time in the service baking for his fellow troops.
After returning home, he settled in Cranford, NJ and began working for Drakes at their Irvington bakery. He eventually moved to Wayne and continued to work for Drakes in their Wayne bakery until his retirement in 2001, after a career of thirty five years.
When he wasn’t working, Frank loved to go fishing. He had a boat and would often take friends out along the Jersey Shore to go fluking. If he wasn’t fishing, he was working on his garden. Gardening was a year-round affair for Frank. He would start everything from seeds, growing them first indoors and then transferring them outside when spring came. He always had hundreds of plants in his garden and took great pride in nursing them all along. His vegetable garden was his true labor of love. He also helped his wife Helga with all of her flowers. He started them all out as seedlings and nurtured them until they were hardy enough to be planted outside. One year, they planted more than eight hundred impatiens in their yard, all of them started from seeds.
Frank met his wife Helga (nee Wachtel) while working at Drakes. They were on the night shift together and on one evening they stopped at Gabriel’s in Mountain View to have a drink. They hit it off and were married in 1983. They honeymooned at the Jersey Shore and have enjoyed nearly thirty years of loving marriage together. Frank began to get ill right after retiring and Helga did everything she could for him, and gave him the best care he could have asked for during the past several years.
Frank is survived by his devoted wife Helga of Wayne, his sons; William Gottas of Texas, Joseph Gottas of Cranford, NJ, Pearce Hertzberg of Tennessee, his daughters; Beverly Newberger and her husband Seth of Harrisburg, NC, and Taryn Hertzberg of Kentucky, his sister; June Bruen and her husband Buddy of Manchester, NJ, four grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
As expressions of sympathy, if friends so wish, donations may be made in Frank’s memory to American Lung Association, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 800. Washington, DC 20004.
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