Everyone, including me, referred to him as "pop-pop." He was always smiling, got around very well for his age and loved making other people smile with him. He worked as an appliance repairman and lived in Staten Island, NY in the house he built around 50 years ago. He had a vacation home here in Lake Naomi which is now the home Carolyn lives in.
Below is his newspaper obituary which I thought was well-written and appropriately summarized a great man:
EDWARD POZNAK, 93
04/15/2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Edward J. Poznak, a native Staten Islander and longtime mechanic and aviator who was surprised by Cupid at age 84, died Tuesday in Staten Island University Hospital, Prince's Bay, following a brief illness. His age was 93.
Mr. Poznak grew up in Mariners Harbor, where he developed his love of flying as a boy, his family said. He would cross the Kill van Kull on a raft and spend all day watching planes take off and land at the airfield in Newark.
04/15/2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Edward J. Poznak, a native Staten Islander and longtime mechanic and aviator who was surprised by Cupid at age 84, died Tuesday in Staten Island University Hospital, Prince's Bay, following a brief illness. His age was 93.
Mr. Poznak grew up in Mariners Harbor, where he developed his love of flying as a boy, his family said. He would cross the Kill van Kull on a raft and spend all day watching planes take off and land at the airfield in Newark.
He graduated from what was then known as Vocational Tech High School on the Island, and moved to New Dorp in 1945 and to Lighthouse Hill in 1962.
For more than 25 years Mr. Poznak was chief mechanic for the appliance department at the Sears store in Port Richmond, before he went into business for himself and opened Ed's Appliance Co. out of his home, which he ran for 15 years until his retirement in the 1980s.
Mr. Poznak was remembered for his love of family, and was delighted when he became a great-great-grandfather a week ago, but he also loved flying.
Mr. Poznak got his pilot's license in 1937 and took trips all over the country in his Cessna and Piper planes, from circuits around the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty to Maine and Nashville, Tenn.
His daughter, Carolyn Barcia, recalled one night when Mr. Poznak, flying in a storm that had knocked out power to a New Jersey airfield below, landed with only the aid of headlights on a truck.
"He was just such an adventuresome person," Mrs. Barcia said. "When he was up in a plane he was like a bird, he was so happy. . . . He used to say he flew by the seat of his pants."
Mr. Poznak was a member of the Knights of Columbus, Assumption Council, and the Airplane Owners & Pilots Association. He was also a longtime parishioner and volunteer at St. Ann's R.C. Church in Dongan Hills.
Mr. Poznak was married to his Anastasia (Tszuska) for 51 years before she died in 1991. They had three children together: Two daughters and a son, William E. Poznak, who died in 1995. Nine years ago, Mr. Poznak wed Theresa Ebert, whom he'd met at a Catholic Widows and Widowers event a year earlier.
She survives him, as do his daughters, Irene E. Parisi and Carolyn C. Barcia; a brother, Charles Poznak; eight grandchildren; four great-grandchildren, and the great-great grandson born just a week ago.
The funeral will be Monday from the Matthew Funeral Home, Willowbrook, with a mass at 10 a.m. in St. Ann's Church. Burial will follow in Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp.
For more than 25 years Mr. Poznak was chief mechanic for the appliance department at the Sears store in Port Richmond, before he went into business for himself and opened Ed's Appliance Co. out of his home, which he ran for 15 years until his retirement in the 1980s.
Mr. Poznak was remembered for his love of family, and was delighted when he became a great-great-grandfather a week ago, but he also loved flying.
Mr. Poznak got his pilot's license in 1937 and took trips all over the country in his Cessna and Piper planes, from circuits around the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty to Maine and Nashville, Tenn.
His daughter, Carolyn Barcia, recalled one night when Mr. Poznak, flying in a storm that had knocked out power to a New Jersey airfield below, landed with only the aid of headlights on a truck.
"He was just such an adventuresome person," Mrs. Barcia said. "When he was up in a plane he was like a bird, he was so happy. . . . He used to say he flew by the seat of his pants."
Mr. Poznak was a member of the Knights of Columbus, Assumption Council, and the Airplane Owners & Pilots Association. He was also a longtime parishioner and volunteer at St. Ann's R.C. Church in Dongan Hills.
Mr. Poznak was married to his Anastasia (Tszuska) for 51 years before she died in 1991. They had three children together: Two daughters and a son, William E. Poznak, who died in 1995. Nine years ago, Mr. Poznak wed Theresa Ebert, whom he'd met at a Catholic Widows and Widowers event a year earlier.
She survives him, as do his daughters, Irene E. Parisi and Carolyn C. Barcia; a brother, Charles Poznak; eight grandchildren; four great-grandchildren, and the great-great grandson born just a week ago.
The funeral will be Monday from the Matthew Funeral Home, Willowbrook, with a mass at 10 a.m. in St. Ann's Church. Burial will follow in Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp.
