Obituary of Leon Jerome Kolankiewicz

Lee Kolankiewicz passed away at home in State College, Pennsylvania on January 22, 2020, surrounded by loved ones. His remains will be interred in the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Bridgeville, PA with full military honors at a later date. Lee was born in Philadelphia on August 30, 1924, the first of four sons. His father was Dr. Leon John Kolankiewicz – an optometrist and city and state politician – and his mother, the former Helen Florence Lojewska, was a Polish immigrant and housewife. He had inspirational parents and devoted brothers – Ted, Bob and Larry. His childhood was a happy one despite growing up during the Great Depression. He enjoyed Philadelphia's sweltering heat in summer and its snowfalls in winter. The New Jersey beaches were a delight never forgotten. As a youth and young man, Lee worked at many different jobs, including grocery store (A&P) delivery boy; stock supply boy for Merck Pharmaceutical; electric steel foundry technician and radiographer; construction project hod carrier; stevedore on the docks of the Delaware River; U.S. Army engineer soldier; corporal, sergeant, staff sergeant. He served 26 months in the Pacific during World War II, where he was sniped at, bombed, and survived two torpedo explosions on the Liberty class ship SS Antoine Saugrain during the Philippine invasion. Lee received an Honorable Discharge, then went to college, earning a B.S. in Chemistry from Tufts University. He was president of his fraternity Theta Delta Chi at Tufts. He received a direct commission as an Army Reserve 2nd Lieutenant and was recalled to active duty for the Korean War. He gave Army inductees basic training at Fort Meade, Maryland; became Executive Officer of the 66th Engineer Company; took off-duty courses with the overseas branch of the University of Maryland; joined staff of the Engineer School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He was promoted to the rank of Captain, and commanded the 66th Engr. Topo. Co. of the Seventh Army for two years in Stuttgart, West Germany, prior to his second Honorable Discharge from active duty. He was subsequently appointed Plans and Training Officer (S-3) for the 336th Engineer Combat Battalion (Reserve). In the 1950s, Lee was hired by Westinghouse as a Project Engineer on propulsion plants for the nuclear submarines Sargo (SSN583) and Sea Dragon (SSN584); he took nuclear engineering courses from Columbia University. Later in his professional career, he became a sales engineer; application engineer; consulting engineer on mechanical and electrical systems; and owned his own company as a manufacturer's representative. In 1952, Lee married Arlene Kelley and the best years of their lives together were blessed with five children: Leon Kolankiewicz III, Thomas Kolankiewicz, Janice Jones, Kathryn Kolankiewicz and Kelley Paterno. The Kolankiewicz home was filled with warmth, lively dinner conversation, friends, parties, homework, sports, tennis and running trophies, pets, and tough love. Sports always played a major part in Lee's life. He played varsity basketball and baseball in college at Tufts. He took up tennis in the Army in Germany and played many years in Mt. Lebanon, PA and Ormond Beach, FL, helping teach it to all of his children, two of whom became state champions in high school, played scholarship tennis in college, and briefly went pro. His family was recognized as Tennis Family of the Year in the USTA Mid-Atlantic States. Tufts inducted Lee and Arlene as the first Couple into its Sports Hall of Fame. He was also a baseball coach for his sons and took up distance running and competing when his children did. In his later years, he became a devoted Penn State University football fan when his son-in-law Jay Paterno coached there. Thanks to Lee and Arlene's hard work and savings, the family was able to enjoy many years of wonderful vacations in Daytona Beach, Florida, and purchased and planted trees on 90 rugged acres at their cabin on Windy Ridge, West Virginia. He is survived by his wife Arlene, brother Larry, his five children, and his eleven grandchildren: Jessica, Megan, Leon IV, Kevin, Thomas, Lars, Joseph, Caroline, Elizabeth (Lizzie), Zachary, and Virginia – good kids all. Lee subscribed to the saying that: "The thrill is in the chase." Long sought goals once achieved, diminish in stature. His happiest years were spent working, fathering, and grandfathering. He believed that a man should work at a career as long as he likes what he does. For the past half-century of Lee's life, he was a writer and a prolific poet, as well as an admirer of those who long before us were able to put their thoughts into written words. His first book of poetry was called "Captured Moments." To quote his wife Arlene, she thought she was marrying an engineer, but she discovered that she had married a poet as well. The single, pensive statement that possessed Lee in the final decades of his life was expressed a long time ago by the Persian mathematician and poet Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) of Naishapur: "Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who, Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the Road, Which to discover we must travel too." "My brothers Bob and Ted are waiting for me…" Two Red Roses in the Kitchen Two red roses are what you see, Adorning the top of the vase, Two red roses together as one, Are what prompts my thoughtful gaze. They compel me to think again, About two people I intimately know, From sixty years of living together, Who've seen old friends come and go. We shared the joys of youth, (and more), Of having our children born, Of seeing them grow and leave, As we for them silently mourn. There is more the two red roses shared, As years became several decades, We became aware of events uncontrollable, When parents passing we could not evade. You may think the two red roses, Showed for me a picture of life, That flowers and humans are the same, No doubt at all that you're right. So yes, the two red roses have shared all this, Life companions who have agreed, That myriad cosmic forces converged, "For better or for worse," Arlene and me. -- Lee Kolankiewicz, 2013 In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Suzanne Pohland Paterno Catholic Student Faith Center or to UPMC Hospice.