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May 27, 2011
Services
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 from 2-4 & 7-9 PM.
Funeral Services will be held at 9:30 AM on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 from the funeral home, then to Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church, Wayne, where at 10:30 AM a Funeral Mass will be offered. Entombment will follow at the Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, 1500 Stuyvesant Avenue, Union, NJ.
Louis J. Tatarko, age 104 of Wayne, died peacefully on Friday, May 27, 2011.
Louis was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on April 9, 1907, when Teddy Roosevelt was still president. His parents had come to America from Kasmark, Austria/Hungary, with his sister Maria and they arrived at Ellis Island. They settled in Elizabeth, but the adjustment proved too difficult for his mother so they moved back to Austria in 1911, when he was just three years old. Their plan was to return to America in a year or so but World War I broke out and Louis' father was drafted into the Austrian Army where he served for five years. All that time, Louis' desire to return to America continued to grow until, at age twenty, he and his eighteen year old brother Jack, made the journey aboard the SS President Harding from Bremen, Germany to New York. Louis went right to work for the Adams and Faber Construction Company where he began what would eventually be a very long working relationship. He also studied architecture at the Fine and Industrial School in Newark to improve his skills in the trades. He acquired the Paul D. Adams Co., Montclair in 1963 and operated that construction company for over fifty years.
In 1928 he met Elsie Pauline Sentgirgner. Their families had been acquainted back in Europe and Louis knew she would be a wonderful wife someday. However, in 1930, Louis' father needed help back at the family mill in Europe and Louis sailed back to Bremen once again. He stayed for four years before returning to America in 1934. Elsie had waited for him all that while and on June 20, 1936 they married at the St. John's Lutheran Church in Newark.
Louis eventually began working for the Adams-Erikson Construction Company and in 1952 found himself building a church in a little known town called Wayne, NJ. Before he completed construction on the Packanack CommunityChurch, Louis knew he wanted to live in Wayne. He found a nice house in Packanack and together with Elsie, they raised their two daughters. Their family eventually grew to include six grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren, and two step-great-grandchildren. They enjoyed sixty one years of devoted marriage before Elsie passed in 1997.
Louis was also a devoted parishioner of Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church, Wayne and a past President (1976) of the Montclair Kiwanis Club.
Louis is survived by his two daughters; Lois Strunce and her husband Robert of Great Falls, VA, and Elsie McKenzie and her husband Joel of Wayne, six grandchildren; Elizabeth McDonald and her husband Dr. Steven of Pipersville,PA, Megan Kelly and her husband Patrick of Tampa, FL, Cindy McKenzie and her husband Tony Silano of Oradell, NJ, Suzanne Schecter and her husband Dr. Daniel of Camden, ME, Tiffany Edwards and her husband Robert of West Friendship, MD, and Todd Strunce and his wife Felicity of Charles Town, WV, 12 great grandchildren, two step-great-grandchildren, and his brother; Msgr. Ernst Tatarko of Westerstetten, Germany. Louis was also predeceased by two brothers; Jack in 1978 and Eugen in 1986.
In lieu of flowers, donations to Hospice of New Jersey, 400 Broad Acres Drive, 1st Floor, Bloomfield, NJ 07003 or The Chilton Memorial Hospital, (medical equipment) 97 West Parkway, Pompton Plains, NJ 07444 would be greatly appreciated.
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, May 31, 2011 from 2-4 & 7-9 PM.
Funeral Services will be held at 9:30 AM on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 from the funeral home, then to Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church, Wayne, where at 10:30 AM a Funeral Mass will be offered. Entombment will follow at the Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, 1500 Stuyvesant Avenue, Union, NJ.
May 27, 2011
Services
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 from 2-4 & 7-9 PM.
Funeral Services will be held at 9:30 AM on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 from the funeral home, then to Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church, Wayne, where at 10:30 AM a Funeral Mass will be offered. Entombment will follow at the Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, 1500 Stuyvesant Avenue, Union, NJ.
Louis J. Tatarko, age 104 of Wayne, died peacefully on Friday, May 27, 2011.
Louis was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on April 9, 1907, when Teddy Roosevelt was still president. His parents had come to America from Kasmark, Austria/Hungary, with his sister Maria and they arrived at Ellis Island. They settled in Elizabeth, but the adjustment proved too difficult for his mother so they moved back to Austria in 1911, when he was just three years old. Their plan was to return to America in a year or so but World War I broke out and Louis' father was drafted into the Austrian Army where he served for five years. All that time, Louis' desire to return to America continued to grow until, at age twenty, he and his eighteen year old brother Jack, made the journey aboard the SS President Harding from Bremen, Germany to New York. Louis went right to work for the Adams and Faber Construction Company where he began what would eventually be a very long working relationship. He also studied architecture at the Fine and Industrial School in Newark to improve his skills in the trades. He acquired the Paul D. Adams Co., Montclair in 1963 and operated that construction company for over fifty years.
In 1928 he met Elsie Pauline Sentgirgner. Their families had been acquainted back in Europe and Louis knew she would be a wonderful wife someday. However, in 1930, Louis' father needed help back at the family mill in Europe and Louis sailed back to Bremen once again. He stayed for four years before returning to America in 1934. Elsie had waited for him all that while and on June 20, 1936 they married at the St. John's Lutheran Church in Newark.
Louis eventually began working for the Adams-Erikson Construction Company and in 1952 found himself building a church in a little known town called Wayne, NJ. Before he completed construction on the Packanack CommunityChurch, Louis knew he wanted to live in Wayne. He found a nice house in Packanack and together with Elsie, they raised their two daughters. Their family eventually grew to include six grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren, and two step-great-grandchildren. They enjoyed sixty one years of devoted marriage before Elsie passed in 1997.
Louis was also a devoted parishioner of Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church, Wayne and a past President (1976) of the Montclair Kiwanis Club.
Louis is survived by his two daughters; Lois Strunce and her husband Robert of Great Falls, VA, and Elsie McKenzie and her husband Joel of Wayne, six grandchildren; Elizabeth McDonald and her husband Dr. Steven of Pipersville,PA, Megan Kelly and her husband Patrick of Tampa, FL, Cindy McKenzie and her husband Tony Silano of Oradell, NJ, Suzanne Schecter and her husband Dr. Daniel of Camden, ME, Tiffany Edwards and her husband Robert of West Friendship, MD, and Todd Strunce and his wife Felicity of Charles Town, WV, 12 great grandchildren, two step-great-grandchildren, and his brother; Msgr. Ernst Tatarko of Westerstetten, Germany. Louis was also predeceased by two brothers; Jack in 1978 and Eugen in 1986.
In lieu of flowers, donations to Hospice of New Jersey, 400 Broad Acres Drive, 1st Floor, Bloomfield, NJ 07003 or The Chilton Memorial Hospital, (medical equipment) 97 West Parkway, Pompton Plains, NJ 07444 would be greatly appreciated.
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