James A. Lodzinski

On June 20th 2025, James "Jim" Alvin Lodzinski was called to join our Lord at the age of 82. He was born on July 28th 1942 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Alvin and Ruth Lodzinski.

His growing up years were spent in Stevens Point where he attended St. Stephen's School and Church. After attending Pacelli one year, he attended P.J. Jacobs Junior High School.

Jim then began his 20-year career in the US NAVY after graduating from Great Lakes training center. He was stationed in Boston, Massachusetts, on the USS WASP (CV-18). On the very first night he was working on the flight deck, a propeller plane crashed into a helicopter he was attending-to causing a wound on and into his back. The ship travelled to the Mediterranean with port calls in Spain, France and Italy then on a NATO good-will cruise to Scotland, England, northern Germany, Norway and Iceland.

He was then transferred to Naples Italy and started his career in meteorology as a plotter and weather observer. He married in Naples, ITALY, in 1964 and returned for 1 year to Stevens Point to attend a business and accounting school.

He joined again the US NAVY taking an anti-submarine warfare training course at Lakehurst New Jersey, after which he was transferred to the Naval Air Station SIGONELLA in Sicily, ITALY, then back to Willow Grove north of Philadelphia where he qualified as a weather forecaster and went on a 1-year tour to N.A.F. Iceland. After completion of the tour he again was sent to N.A.S. SIGONELLA to rejoin his wife and son Jean Paul. In Sicily he also qualified as a scuba diver for dives of over 100 feet.

Continuing-on he was stationed at N.A.S. Glenview, outside of Chicago, and attended an instructor training school at the Great Lakes Naval Station, which also qualified him to teach meteorology to NAVY and ARMY reserves. He flew via helicopter to various bases and gave weather briefings to aircraft pilots and lectures to many area schools and also qualified to teach kindergarten and 1st grade classes. His next duty station was the USS Constellation (CV-64) out of San Diego, California, and a 9 month far east deployment with stops in Hawaii, Philippines, Kenya (where he experienced a 4-day safari), Perth-AUSTRALIA and Singapore. His responsibilities included weather forecasting and flight operations for the whole battlegroup.

After completing his 20 years of service in the US NAVY, he returned to Stevens Point and attended broadcasting school in Wausau. Entering the job market, he landed a job in Tripoli Libya on an experimental cloud-seeding project.
Returning home he bought a duplex home and started driving school buses for the Stevens Point area, from which he eventually retired after 16 years of service.

"I hope I made a difference in these kid's lives and was well loved by my students"

In the spirit of giving, besides making donations to Pacelli, Good Will, St. Stephens Church & School, at Christmas time he would give cash or gift certificates to help the needy. His cards bore the stamp 'Your guardian angel'.

He also drove for Operation Bootstrap and joined Community Area acting with parts in several plays, also serving on the board of directors of Big Brothers & Sisters for 4 years.

Jim's free time was spent making wine, fishing and sharing quality time with his fiancée and love Nancy WACHOWIAK, traveling around the U.S.A. and visiting the casinos.

He was preceded in death by his parents, brother Jerry and fiancée Nancy WACHOWIAK.

He is survived by his son Jean Paul, daughter in law Carolina and two grandsons David James & Julian Erik Lodzinski, by his sisters Mary Alm, Jody (Willy) Disher, Sue (Mark) Bembenek, many relatives and close friends.

The family would like to express their gratitude to Heartland Hospice especially Jodie, Jim's CNA, for their wonderful care of Jim, to Maple Ridge Memory Care and also to the staff at Whispering Pines.

A Mass of Christian Burial for Jim will be held at 11:00 AM on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025 at St. Stephen's Catholic Church, 1401 Clark Street, Stevens Point. The visitation will be held at 9:30 AM until the time of service on Wednesday at the church. Burial will follow with full military honors in the St. Stephen's Parish Cemetery, 1413 Minnesota Ave, Stevens Point. Pisarski Funeral Homes are honored to be serving the family.

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