John Monchak, 85, a longtime resident of Paterson, NJ passed away on Thursday, May 3, 2012.Born and raised in Coaldale, PA until the age of eight when his family relocated to Garfield, he was a graduate of Garfield High School.Mr. Monchak proudly served with the U.S. Army Air Corps.He received his master’s degree in industrial engineering from Steven’s Institute of Technology.
A man of strong faith, he was a founding member of Orthodox Christian Church of Christ Savior in Paramus and St. Mark’s Orthodox Church in Bethesda, MD.John was a member and former head master of Lessing-Passaic Masonic Lodge #67 and member of the St. Vladimir’s Foundation in Yonkers, NY where he served on the board.An avid outdoorsman, he enjoyed gardening, boating, skiing and hiking as a member of the NE Trail Conference.
He was a computer systems analyst with the FAA in Washington, D.C. and NAFEC near Atlantic City, and later a computer scientist at CSC in Nashua, NH.
Beloved husband of Olya (Marchenkoff) Monchak.Loving and devoted father of John Mark Monchak and wife Deepa.Cherished grandfather of Anya and Nayan Monchak.Dear brother of Frances, Mary and Sonia.
A funeral service is planned for Monday, May 7, 2012, 9 AM at Orthodox Christian Church of Christ the Saviour, 365 Paramus Road, Paramus, NJ 07652.Interment will follow at Monastery of Saint Tikhon’s Cemetery in South Caanan, PA.The family will receive relatives and friends Sunday 2-4 and 7-9 PM at Vander Plaat-Caggiano Fineral Home, 13-31 Saddle River Road, Fair Lawn, NJ, 201-797-3500.
In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of John may be made to the Orthodox Christian Church of Christ the Saviour.
2012-05-07 05:23:37
Michael G. Hollar
What could someone say about uncle John? A lot of people do say that he is a good man. Not only was he a good man, but he was also a righteous man. An example not only for young men to follow, whether it was for his own son, or nephews, or great nephews. Anybody that knew him and came in contact with him could see right off the bat that he was example for all human beings to follow. He was the type of man that was always curious about another’s well-being, and would ask about you or who ever he was concerned about. He always did it out of truthful and honest concern and never pushed to mettle in another person’s affairs. He had struck the perfect balance of caring about his fellow man, and minding his own business at the same time.
He was a man that loved to learn. Even in his old age he was always willing and wanting to know something new. It always seemed that as soon as he learned about something new, he couldn’t wait to tell someone else, and pass on his knowledge. His life’s concern was always to seek for and to achieve improvement, whether is was building a mission parish from scratch, to being involve in local projects in whatever city or town he happened to live in at the time to improve the community, or most notably raising funds to improve the lives of those with muscular dystrophy. One certainly has to mention how he faithfully and successfully went above and beyond to improve the life of his family, his parents, his wife, his son and his son‘s new family, his sisters, and his sister’s families as well, he even went as far as going to Poland to help improve the lives of his cousins.
John was always trying to see the positive side of things, if something that occurred that was bad or unfortunate he would immediately try to conceive the positive possibilities that could come form a bad situation. He would say himself that he was an optimists. Besides being an optimists, he loved to use humor. He enjoyed laughing. Even when he heard something that was really negative or to the point of being ridiculously bad, once he knew the other person couldn’t be persuaded to something more positive, he would just give you one last look and then look away and smile and laugh, and went on about his business thinking up his next positive thought about the situation, or just left it alone, and thought about something totally different that was on a positive note. No sense arguing with someone that was committed to their folly. With that you could say he was real gentlemen.
John was to his very core a true Orthodox Christian, not only by his works and deeds as noted above, but also by his deep spirituality. His spirituality was very basic and simple, but still deep. Every time John went to church he lit two candles, one for the living, and one for the dead. He knew and remembered all the names of the living, of the whole family, that he prayed for, and he knew the names of all the dead, of the whole family, even those going back generations to the old country. One of the highlights of his spiritual life was that he went to Poland to the region where his father came from and where his cousins to this day live. While there he really enjoyed celebrating a feast day on top of a mountain, right on the border of Poland and Slovakia. He loved that pilgrims hiked up to the top of the mountain from the Polish side, and pilgrims hiked up form the Slovakia side and met at the top and celebrated the Divine Liturgy. For him it gave him the experience to witness true piety, not only in himself but also in others.
So may the servant of God John enjoy the Heavenly Divine Liturgy now with all the saints, and rejoice in the risen Lord, and may John’s memory be truly eternal. Christ is Risen! Eternal Memory! Christos Vokres! Vichnija Pamyat!
2012-05-05 00:55:12
P.M. Fred R. Hollar
To My Beloved Uncle And Second Father Without you My live would not be as good as it now. Thanks for all your fatherly advice thoughout my life. You will be greatly missed by alot of people.God Bless you My Brother! So Moe It Be.
