Lawrence Earl Rohlik

Lawrence Rohlik was born in Cleveland Ohio in 1928 a little over a year before the onset of the Great Depression and was a product of that time. Larry was married to our mom, Dolores also of Cleveland Ohio. He was the third son of Arthur and Mary Rohlik. Larry's dad was a pattern maker at Alcoa Aluminum. Our grandmother, Mary was a jolly homemaker and fan of the Cleveland Indians. In addition to being extremely handy, his dad, our grandfather was a fisherman. Larry and his brothers took up fishing at an early age and continued this hobby for the next 90+ years, every Saturday and any other time water was nearby. Our family always lived near the water. Creeks. Rivers. Small lakes. Great Lakes. Lyons lake. Falls lake. Hidden lake just to name a few.
In addition to being a passionate and frugal fisherman, our dad was a bit of a craftsman, wood worker and artist. He built our first color TV from a Heathkit assembly. Our dad built numerous pieces of furniture for us. He was a painter of outdoor scenes and a wood carver. He made his own fishing lures out of metal, wood and rubber. The lures he crafted were both practical and functional works of art. As a kid when it was "bath time", it was also "new lure test time". He would troll the lures (with hooks) through our bathwater. This was normal in our household.
Our family vacations consisted of fishing destinations. We spent three weeks every summer in Honey Harbor on Georgian Bay in Canada. Our family had been traveling to the same rustic fishing camp from 1938 to 1972. No hot water and a community outhouse. Perfect for family vacations. As kids it was plain heaven. For my dad and mom, it was fishing heaven.
Our dad always wondered "what the fish were doing down there?". Scuba diving lessons and certification soon followed. In the 1970's our entire family became certified divers which has carried on. Denise, his granddaughter is many things, one of which is a dive guide and certified diving instructor here in North Carolina. Her grandfather is directly responsible for this. Larry enrolled in the Navy immediately following WWII and served as a radar repairman on the aircraft carriers Bairoko CVE-115 and the Princeton CV-23. Following the Navy, Larry briefly attended Purdue University. He was later employed at a few small companies and finally by Eastman Kodak where he worked until his retirement. He worked servicing equipment used to process "microfilm" and "microfiche". Look it up. High tech at the time. Larry and Dolores lived in Cleveland, then moved to Canton, Ohio and later to the Pittsburgh area then to Youngsville, North Carolina yes on a lake.
Outdoor activities were big in our family. Nimishillen Creek in Canton, Ohio often froze during the winter becoming a very long skating rink. Sometime in the 1960's, we traveled to Kmart to buy hockey sticks. Straight blades on those now vintage wooden sticks. We learned to play ice hockey wearing figure skates. Ice Hockey became big in our family and somewhat of a tradition. I played, my daughter played for the Carolina Jr Hurricanes women's team and at Penn State. Larry's grandson Jon plays ice hockey non-stop at the local Raleigh rinks where he is also a referee. Again, it all started with our dad/grandfather. We as a family attended the first Carolina Hurricanes in Greensboro vs the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1997. Later we as a family attended many Hurricane games including every playoff game culminating in the raising of the Stanley Cup in 2006. A big moment for the Canes and a huge moment for our family! Looking back over the family photo collection and various memorabilia, we found a few of his early school report cards from 1941 and 1942. Miss Grover stated, "Lawrence is a very responsible and likeable boy".
Miss Nida Glick his World History teacher, offered him some early guidance when she wrote, "You do good work often, but not sufficiently often. Pay less attention to your neighbor and you will be a good student". In June of 1941, C.E. Conyer, his Math teacher wrote, "Lawrence is a fine boy".
Yep. That's our dad and more. He was a responsible and fine boy. His daughter Elaine and son Michael benefited of having had great and humble parents. His grandchildren Marc, Denise and Jon had a role model to keep them laughing and inspired. His son in law Stan and daughter in law Jackie admired both our mom and dad. Larry and Dolores Rohlik.
Both fine and admirable parents/grandparents/aunts/uncles in every way.
Arrangements in the care of Bright Funeral Home.