Joseph Dziezawiec

Joseph Dziezawiec, age 77 of Paterson, died on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021. Joe has been a Paterson resident his entire life. He achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, National Guard, and Reserves. He was very proud of his more than twenty-five years of service to his country.

Joe had been a teacher, a supervisor, and a track coach at Passaic County Tech High School for more than thirty-five years before retiring. He was a graduate himself of Passaic County Tech, with the class of 1962. He began his career as a math teacher and then became a Supervisor of Instruction for multiple departments. His greatest satisfaction came from being coach of the Track & Field team at Tech. He was very proud of the accomplishments of all his student athletes. Joe was himself an excellent Cross Country runner when he was a student at William Paterson College. He graduated from William Paterson with his Bachelor’s Degree in 1966, and he had also been class president of his senior class. Joe was inducted into the William Paterson Athletic Hall of Fame for Cross Country in 1997, as well as the Old Timers Association in Greater Paterson in 2018.

Joe was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1966, upon his graduation from college. He went to Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma where he was trained in Artillery. He was a natural leader in every role he encountered, and he quickly rose in military rank. He married his wife Janice on March 9, 1968, at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Joe is survived by his beloved wife, Janice (nee Guarnaccia) of Paterson; daughter, Jill Robinson of Washington Township, NJ; granddaughter, Emma Robinson of Washington Township, NJ; sister, Sandra Dziezawiec of Woodland Park, NJ; brother, David Dziezawiec and his wife Victoria of Colorado Springs, CO; son-in-law, Michael Burke of Atlanta, GA; sisters-in-law, Nancy Fitzgerald and her husband Ed of Pompton Plains, and Arlene Guarnaccia of Wayne; and many nieces and nephews. Joe was predeceased by his daughter, Joy Burke in 2016, and by his son-in-law; Ed Robinson in 2018.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations to the William Paterson University Foundation would be greatly apprecaited.