JOSEPH POLOCZ

1921 - 2020

May 10th would have been the 100th birthday of Joseph Polocz of Everett, who slipped into the arms of his loving heavenly Father June 9, 2020. Just two months earlier, Joe joyously celebrated his 99th birthday as friends, masked and socially distanced, honored him. When it is safe to do so, a celebration of Joe's life will be held at the Everett home of his daughter and son-in-law, Maxine and John Rogalski.

Joe was born May 10, 1921 in Pannonhalma, Hungary, where his mother and grandmother taught him devotion to God and to be hard-working and frugal. His father taught him ornamental ironwork and how to repair farm implements, tools, keys, locks pots and pans. If it was made of metal, Joe learned how to fix it or make it.

Joe loved to read, to learn anything and everything, even after having to leave school in the sixth grade to become his father's apprentice. When electrical service came to his village, Joe and a friend explored the new technology and built a crystal radio. By age 13 Joe not only worked in the blacksmith shop, but on weekends at the village theater. When his father could no longer work, Joe added driving a delivery wagon to support the family.

Newsreels brought the wider world to Joe. To his horror, he realized Hungary would be forced to join Germany. In 1942 Joe ignored his inevitable draft notice and joined the Hungarian army. He was sent to aviation aircraft maintenance school. He augmented his considerable mechanical skills by quickly learning algebra, geometry and trigonometry. When Russian troops overran the airfield in Yugoslavia where Joe had been transferred, he and a friend, who both had only a single half-hour lesson in a glider, managed to get away by flying a derelict German plane they had used for training mechanics. It was an escape worthy of a Hollywood movie.

At war's end, after being released from a prisoner of war camp in French occupied Germany, Joe worked on a farm, built a still and became the local bootlegger. Warned by his best customer, the chief of police, that Hungarians were being rounded up and sent into forced labor in Siberia, Joe "disappeared" for a few days and returned to the farm. Later, Joe traveled toward Hungary, intending to return home. At the border, he again eluded Russian capture in another daring escape and returned to the farm.

He made his way to France, hoping to get mail to his older brother who had emigrated to America before the war. Joe labored for three years in a coal mine. Having learned passable French, he made his way to Paris and declared himself a displaced person. In Paris, Joe met and married Hungarian-American Mary Szoke. When her visa was up, Mary returned to the States while Joe waited for his paperwork to be approved. When he got to America, he was introduced to his three-month-old daughter.

The family moved to Joe's brother's New Jersey farm, then to a German community in Philadelphia. Joe worked as a laborer, picked up some English, got a job doing metal work and eventually went to work for RCA, jumping at every opportunity for continuing education. By the time he retired from RCA, the company had created a title for him: Engineering Support Analyst.

While at RCA Joe worked on the first color TV broadcasting equipment, electron microscopes, early satellites, the antennas for Lunar Rovers used on Apollo 15, 16 and 17 and the development and installation of Aegis radar, part of the US Navy's Advanced Surface Missile System. In 1986 Joe retired and he and Mary moved to Everett to be closer to Maxine and John, who had relocated in 1982.

Joe volunteered at the Museum of Flight Restoration Center and soon had his own team fabricating parts for the 1933 Boeing 247-D, the world's first modern airliner. He and his team went on to restore four early flight simulators called Link Trainers. He then turned to creating ingenious modifications to his house to make life easier for Mary, whose health was failing. She died in 2007 after 58 years of marriage.

Joe's love of music, especially Mozart, carried him through his early bereavement. He found solace and friendship at Carl Gipson Senior Center, his home away from home for 14 years. Closing of the center due to Covid 19 began his decline. Hospitalized from a fall that broke his shoulder and hip, Joe came home on Hospice. He died in his own bed in the home he shared with Maxine and John, just the way he wanted.

Besides Maxine and John, Joe is survived by two nieces, Sister Loretta Marie SS.C.M. of Danville, PA and Bago Irenke (Janos) of Hungary. As he wished, his ashes will be joining Mary's at a majestic spot in the Cascades. His family can never fully express their thanks to treasured friend Linda Taylor for her loving attendance at Joe's bedside, or to Nancy Fisher, who also supported Joe in his final days and since. Maxine and John are also grateful to the many friends who cared about them and Joe and sent flowers, food and cards. They are also very appreciative of Continuum Hospice and to Griswold Home Health Care of Mountlake Terrace. Both tended Joe with faithful, compassionate care and greatly consoled the family.

May 10, 1921 - June 2, 2020