Edward Gryczewski, a retired Ohio Bell engineering manager and a Roman Catholic deacon who was chaplain to the Port of Toledo, died Nov. 26 in the Episcopal Church Home, Rochester, N.Y. He was 92.
He’d been in declining health, his daughter Marlene said. He and his wife, Helen, longtime Point Place residents, moved to Rochester in June, 2015, to be near their daughter Marlene. His wife died Sept. 23.
Mr. Gryczewski retired as an engineering manager at Ohio Bell, where he worked for 30 years. At his parish, St. John the Baptist, he had been a past president of the Holy Name Society, taught religious education, and helped plan the annual festival. His second vocation, in retirement, became the permanent diaconate of the Catholic Church. He was ordained as a deacon in 1976.
“He had heard about a meeting to discuss this new ministry, and it sort of flipped a switch. He said, ‘This is for me,’ ” she said. He received thank you notes addressed to “Deacon Ed” from students whose classes he visited in the parish school.
“He was just known to everyone as Deacon Ed. He was a regular guy,” his daughter said. He officiated at the weddings of his daughters and baptized his grandchildren — and many others.
He became chaplain to the Port of Toledo in 1987, a post he retained for more than a decade. Sailors from across the globe stopped by the refurbished trailer he brought to the port. There they could phone home or just relax and pick up a care package of toiletries his wife packed. He acted as tour guide, but also took them shopping or for medical care. He acted as advocate for sailors who told him of poor conditions aboard ship.
“I never talk religion unless they want to,” Mr. Gryczewski told The Blade in 1992. Often he just listened.
“It seems like they do more ministering to me than I do to them,” he said in 1992. “It’s one of those crazy things you just can’t seem to account for.”
His daughter Marlene said: “It’s such a rare gift he had, to have two careers and touch so many lives we’ll never know. His legacy reached so far.”
He also became chaplain for the Toledo affiliate of Telephone Pioneers of America, a volunteer group.
“He was truly a dedicated deacon in the church,” said Msgr. William Kubacki, vicar general of the Toledo Diocese, whose father, Art, and Mr. Gryczewski became friends in grade school. “That flowed from the fact that he also was a faithful husband and a devoted father.”
Mr. Gryczewski was a Boy Scout growing up and later became a scoutmaster and served on the executive board of the Toledo Area Council. He was a founder of the parish golf league and of the Bayview Retirees Golf Course, where in 1990 he sunk a hole in one.
He was born Oct. 8, 1924, to Josephine and Walter Gryczewski and grew up on Maple Street in North Toledo. He was a 1942 graduate of the former Macomber Vocational High School. He was a Navy veteran of World War II, serving as an electrician’s mate on a ship in the Pacific Theater.
He and his wife married Sept. 13, 1947. Their daughter Kathleen Ann died in infancy.
Surviving are his daughters, Marlene Jensen and Karen Taylor; sisters, Lottie Kollins and Joan Polus; four grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.
Services will be at 11 a.m. today in St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, with visitation after 9 a.m. Arrangements are by the David R. Jasin-Hoening Funeral Home.
The family suggests tributes to the church.
Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.
First Published December 2, 2016, 5:00 a.m.