Joseph H. Willinsky

Joseph H. Willinsky, 71, former Minersville chief of police, died Friday morning in Glen Burnie, Md.

Born in Pottsville, he was a son of the late Jerome and Grace Leininger Willinsky. He was a graduate of Minersville High School and attended Indiana University. He was an eight-year veteran of the Navy Submarine Service.

His decades-long interest in football was sparked as a player for Minersville High School and later in the Big Ten for Indiana University. His professional career included play as a guard in the AFL for the Boston Patriots, followed by two seasons in the former Continental Football League for the Philadelphia Bulldogs. He served as varsity football coach for Minersville Area High School from 1981 to 1991. He coached three Minersville Area teams to division titles and he remains, to date, the only coach to have taken two Minersville Area teams to consecutive championships, the last in 1984. For three years during his tenure (1981-83), Minersville Area produced three consecutive Scholar-Athletes, a Schuylkill County record that still stands. Joe was named Football Coach of the Year by his peers in 1984.

He was also a career law enforcement officer, starting as a part-time patrolman with the Minersville Police Department before being appointed as chief of police in 1977. He served in that capacity until retiring. He moved to Las Vegas where he was a qualifying agent for the Lone Star Security and Courtesy Patrol.

Until leaving Schuylkill County, he was a member of Zion Lutheran Church, Minersville. He was also a member of FOP Black Diamond Lodge 80, the Allen-Rogowicz Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, the Saint Clair Old Timers Association, the USS Sea Robin Association, the American Legion and the Disabled American Veterans. He was a past member of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police, the International Chief of Police Association, the Miami Chapter of the Police Hall of Fame and the Schuylkill County Coaches Association.

Preceding him in death was a granddaughter, Samantha Stripe, in 2004.

Joe is survived by his wife, Frances Kurek; four children, David Willinsky and his wife, Kelly, Cressona, J. Scott Willinsky and his wife, Ruby, Charlotte, N.C., Michelle Stripe, Minersville, Mark Willinsky and his wife, Tracy, Pottsville; a stepson, Joseph Hydock, Ohio; nine grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; a brother, Jerome Willinsky and his wife, Merna, Las Vegas, Nev.; two nieces; two nephews.

Memorial services will be held 11 a.m. Friday at Dutcavich Funeral Home, Minersville, with the Rev. Paul Schaediger officiating. Relatives and friends may call from 9 until 11 a.m. Dutcavich Funeral Home is entrusted with arrangements.