Eugene Paul Romzek

Mr. Eugene Paul Romzek, 91 of Ubly, passed away Wednesday, January 30, 2019 surrounded by his loving family at his residence while under hospice care.

            Eugene was born January 11, 1928 at home in Parisville to the late George and Cecelia (Richard) Romzek. He attended St. Mary’s Catholic School in Parisville and graduated from the Sigel Township Country School. He was his mother’s right hand man and she called him her “Genie”.  He farmed before heading out for a year on the Great Lakes with the Pittsburg Steamship Co. Eugene then joined the US Navy and served in the Marshal Islands with Atomic bomb testing.

Eugene then began farming in Ruth. He married Aletha Roggenbuck on August 18, 1951 at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Helena. She passed away on July 4, 1953 due to injuries sustained in a car accident. He married Evelyn Soule on August 18, 1954 at Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Ruth. They farmed in the Ruth area while he worked at Active Industries spray painting. In 1959, Eugene and his family moved to Alaska where he was a civil service painter, working on aircrafts at Elmendorf Air Force Base.

Upon returning to Michigan, Eugene started farming as well as working at various places including Brown Egg Co. and Travco Corp. of Brown City, Crown Builders of Decker, Williams Muck Farm in Minden City, and Carmet Co of Bad Axe from where he retired after 30 years of employment. Eugene always said he never had to look for work, as it found him. He was a former 4-H leader, bowler and snowmobiler. He was a life member of the Parisville VFW Post #5740. Eugene was a former parishioner of St. Mary Catholic Church in Parisville, Sts. Pete r& Paul Catholic Church in Ruth and St. Anthony Church in Alaska. He was a current parishioner of St. John Church, Good Shepherd Parish of Ubly for the last 58 years, serving as an usher.

Eugene was an avid hunter, coming home with a polar bear, black bear, caribou and many white tail deer. He did a lot of fishing for many kinds of fish and once said, “I fished for eight days a week.” He enjoyed all of his family and always had candy kisses whenever they came to visit.

Eugene in survived by his wife of 64 years, Evelyn; 5 children, Ellen (Dr. Robert, DO) Brengel of North Branch, Steve (Nancy) Romzek of Ubly, Dennis (Paula) Romzek of Ubly, Perry Romzek of Pigeon, Mary (Charles) Spaetzel of Snover; 16 grandchildren, Paul (Jodie Romzek, Kyle (Danielle) Romzek, Rachel Brengel, Ruth (Dan) Parrott, Daniel Brengel, Jamie (Todd) Cooper, Scott Romzek, Ashely (Tyler) Loveless, Janice Romzek, Jeremiah Romzek, James (Rachel) Spaetzel. Christopher (Mary Beth) Spaetzel, Andrew Spaetzel, Kaleigh Spaetzel, Nathan Spaetzel, Austin Spaetzel; 9 great grandchildren, Benjamin Maier, Gabrielle and Garrett Romzek, Addyson and Aiden Romzek, August Svensson, Jay Spaetzel, Kyle and Kiersten Cooper; two brothers, George (Charlotte) Romzek, David (Gerri) Romzek; 4 sisters, Mary Knoll, Julia Steele, Agnes Hool, Dorothy Rinke; one sister-in-law, Susan Romzek; many Roggenbuck In-Laws. 1 aunt, Verna Romzek; 2 special nieces, Dorothy Summerer and Cecilia Solden; many other nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by 1 sister, Irene (Norman) Shevokas; 3 brothers, Irvin (Ernestine) Romzek, Raymond (Virginia) (Beverly) Romzek, Benedict Romzek; in-laws, Charles Knoll, Robert Steele, William Hool, David Rinke, Marian (Marvin) Polewach, Lillian (George) Lapp, Marvin (Delores) Soule.

Mass of Christian burial for Eugene will be 11:00 am Saturday, February 2, 2019 at St. John Catholic Church, Good Shepherd Parish in Ubly. Rev. Charles Hammond will officiate. Eugene’s final resting place will be St. John Cemetery in Ubly in the spring.

Visitation will be at the Zinger-Smigielski Funeral Home in Ubly on Friday from 2:30-7:00 pm and on Saturday at St. John Church in Ubly from 10:00-10:45 am. There will be a parish vigil service Friday evening at 6:00 pm at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Good Shepherd Religious Education Fund or a charity of your choice.