Henry A. Zdanowicz, age 94 of Wayne and formerly of Toms River, died peacefully on Wednesday, October 22, 2014.

Born and raised in Paterson, Henry graduated from St. John’s High School in 1937. He loved to tell stories about his childhood, especially about his experiences working at the local Kresge’s 5 and 10 Store on Main Street in Paterson. It seems he had quite a bit of fun working there. He and his co-working buddies liked to push one of the girls they worked with onto the dumb-waiter and give her rides. You could say that the professional atmosphere was “loose”. If a glass bowl was broken above the vats of ice cream, Henry would just do his best to scoop the glass pieces out rather than throw the whole container of ice cream away. The same remedy was the standard for a cut finger……enough said.

Following high school, Henry attended aeronautical school in Connecticut. After graduating he began a career with Curtis Wright Corporation doing what he liked to do best…..work with his hands. He enjoyed his career as an engineer and second-shift supervisor. He worked for Curtis Wright for 40 years and, upon his retirement in 1982 he was so thankful to his daughter Carolyn for throwing him a beautiful retirement party. He told her that it was the first party anyone had ever thrown for him.

Henry met his first wife Jean in his hometown of Paterson. They were neighbors who happened to fall in love. They got married by a Justice of the Peace in Connecticut, but when his mother heard about this, she told Henry that he had to get married in the church. Never one to want to disappoint Mom, he and Jean exchanged their vows again, this time before God, family and friends at St. Stephen’s Church in, of course, Paterson. Soon after their wedding, Henry and Jean were blessed with their firstborn, a baby girl that they named Carolyn. Ten years later they gave Carolyn a baby sister which they named Lorraine. By now the family was living in Hawthorne. Then in 1963, when Jean was just thirty-nine and the girls were twenty and ten, Jean passed away after a battle with cancer. Henry’s job description quickly expanded from bread winner to primary care giver too. Later on, in the 1970’s, Henry met another wonderful woman named Thelma. She became his second wife and together they enjoyed loving companionship and a great marriage until her passing in 1996.

Besides his family, Henry has a special love affair with cars. He had lots of them over the years and he took such good care of them that he was known for cleaning and polishing them until the paint literally wore off! One of his favorites was his Chevy II Super Sport. He enjoyed the simple pleasure of a ride in his car and, recently as he got older he was known to say, “Taking my cars away from me would be like cutting my legs off.” As recently as two weeks ago he was talking about buying a new car! Retirement gave Henry and Thelma the chance to travel and they enjoyed going back and forth to Florida and down to the Jersey shore. They eventually moved permanently to Toms River and Henry stayed there until eight years ago when he came to live with his daughter Carolyn. Henry also enjoyed building model cars and airplanes. He could fix anything and was always ready to help anyone who needed something fixed in their house. Henry had one other passion in his life…..he loved to dance the polka. When he was young, he and Jean and the girls would go and dance at the Polish Home, a dance hall in Garfield. He dubbed himself the “Polka King” and if they got tired dancing, he would dance with any other woman who was willing.

Henry felt very blessed to have the gift of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He would describe them as the apple of his eye. When his great grandchildren would be upset and cry, he would always try to console and encourage them by lovingly saying “poochy poochy, Pop-Pop is here!” They all loved him right back and will dearly miss his warm and sunny disposition.

Henry had a great love for God and knew Jesus as his Lord and Savior. When he was just a little boy, his parents taught him prayers in Polish. Upon entering school for the first time, he was asked to recite his prayers like the other children. Henry couldn’t do it because he only knew them in the Polish language. He learned them in English quickly after that. As a youngster he also served as an altar boy and as an adult, he attended mass daily until his older age made it too hard to get to church. His family takes great comfort and is greatly encouraged that as one of God’s children, Henry is now enjoying the joys of his new heavenly home.

Surviving with wonderful memories of this dear man’s life are his loving daughter Carolyn Mazzotta of Wayne; two adored grandchildren: Ron Mazzotta and wife Nancy of Pompton Lakes, and Stacey Ventre and husband Michael of Wayne; and three cherished great-grandchildren: Addison Ventre and twins Kaitlyn and Sydney Ventre. Henry was predeceased by his first wife Jean and second wife Thelma; his dear daughter Lorraine Hackett; and his sister Irene Kolowski.