John P Gurdak, 93, a resident of the Warren Co. Rouse Home, passed away Thursday, April 12, 2012 at the Warren General Hospi-tal.
John was born at home on August 15, 1918, a son of the late Michael and Mary (Furtak) Gurdak. John was a 1936 Youngsville High School graduate, cap-tain of the football team, and Valedictorian of his class. He went on to study at Cornell University and play football for them for a year. John was a WWII veteran, beginning his ser-vice in 1943. His trip across the ocean to Europe was aboard the Queen Mary and included 22,000 soldiers. He was a member of the 33rd Infantry and the 84th Rail-Splitters. One of John's duties included rein-forcement for the Battle of the Bulge. He received a Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, Good Conduct Medal, the Conduct Infantry Badge, and the European Theater Medal. He began his career at the National Forge Co. in Irvine. He spent 15 years in the chem lab, and the next 21 and a half years in inspection and quality control. John's phi-losophy on life was to fol-low the golden rule and the Ten Commandments, and believed religion would make the world a better place. He was a member of St. Luke's Roman Catholic Church, and was among other original parishioners to encourage the building of the church. John enjoyed hunting, fishing, football, baseball and horseshoes.
John was preceded in death by the love of his life, his wife Margaret (Col-lins) Gurdak, whom he mar-ried August 26, 1939 , a daughter Lana and her hus-band Louis Morris, 3 granddaughters, 3 brothers, Joseph, Andrew and Stan-ley Gurdak and a sister Helen Pantall.
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He is survived by 3 daughters, Adrienne ( Frank) Suppa of Warren, Paula (H. James) Carlett of Lakeland, Fla., Maureen (John) Glenn of LaGrange KY, 2 granddaughters that he raised Victoria (James) Sherrife of Concord, NC, Janell (Jason) Culver of Bradford, PA, a sister So-phia Pantall of Jamestown, NY, 11 grandchildren, 34 great-grandchildren and 6 great great-grandchildren.
Friends will be received on Monday form 4-7 PM at the Nelson Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 314 N. Main St., in Youngsville. A vigil service will take place there at 6:30 PM. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated on Tuesday at 11:00 AM at St. Luke's Ro-man Catholic in Youngs-ville with the Rev. Fr. John Neff, pastor, as celebrant. Entombment will be in the Mausoleum at St. Joseph's Cemetery. The family sug-gests memorial donations be made to the Friends of the Rouse, 701 Rouse Ave., Youngsville, Pa. 16371 E-condolences to the fami-ly may be made at www.nelsonfuneralhome. net.