Allen Paul Murawski

Allen Paul Murawski

Allen Paul "Alvie" Murawski, age 78, graduated to Heaven on Oct. 4, 2022, while surrounded by his children, grandchildren and remaining siblings. According to legend, he was born July 31, 1944, to Paul and Marion Murawski in Morann, on the kitchen table.

One of 10 children, Allen was the oldest of his three brothers and protector of his sisters. With his father serving in the U.S. Army when he was born, he began life a little spoiled but learned to be tough, salvaging junk for money and wrestling from a young age.

Proud to have had a hand in building their family home in Eldred, Allen was a hard worker, sometimes working three jobs to help provide for the family and save for his children's college educations.

Allen loved hunting, the smell of fresh-cut firewood, golfing and the outdoors. He was known to eat copious amounts of perogies and loved coconut cream pie, lemon meringue pie, Middlesworth potato chips and macadamia nuts, or any kind of nut for that matter.

He adored music, especially Elvis, and was a gifted singer. It was said he could sing a song from any three words given to him.

Until his hands gave out from arthritis, he wrote a card for every grandchild's birthday complete with poems. The self-titled "Poet of Morann," he went on to have a poem recognized and published in an anthology.

While growing up, he loved to tell stories about "walking seven miles each way to school uphill in the snow." Well, dad, we Googled it and discovered it was only 5.9 miles each way! But like Gandalf the Gray joked in the Hobbit movie, "All good stories deserve embellishment."

Upon graduating high school, he attended Lock Haven University where he met Mary Petruzzi, his wife of 28 years. He earned a master of education from Elmira College and a master of science from St. Bonaventure University in school administration.

After his grandchildren, his proudest accomplishment was his career as a public-school teacher of 35 years (1965-2000), first at Addison Elementary in Addison for four years, then at Portville Elementary in Portville, N.Y. for 31 years. He loved to wrestle and coach. After wrestling at Lock Haven, he went on to coach wrestling at both Addison and Portville.

He will be dearly missed by all those who knew him and loved him. Near the end of his life, he was quoted as saying, "Jesus is everything to me."

A proud father of four, and grandfather of 13, affectionately known as "Pap Pap" or "Grampa Doodle," he is survived by his son, Kent Murawski (Gina); daughters, Gina Dennison, Maria Wolf (Tim) and Kristina Murawski; grandchildren, Emma, Claire, Abby, Lily, Bella, Liam, Natalia, Toby, Kole, Ava, Jon, Zipporah and Exodus; and siblings, Doris Kitko, Patrick Murawski (Sandy), Paulette Hopkins (Tom) and Joyce Ridgeway (Tom).

The memorial service took place on Oct. 7, 2022, at United Church in Owings Mills, Md., a congregation started and led by his daughter, Maria, and son-in-law, Tim. The funeral already passed.

See you in heaven, dad.