Gary Petok

1949 - 2025

News story
By Sarah Readdean
Blade staff writer

Gary Steven Petok, who was the stepson of Paul Block, Jr., the late co-publisher of The Blade, and became a health-care attorney in Texas, died Dec. 10 in a Texas hospital. He was 76.

He had multiple complications and died of heart failure, according to his daughter, Leila Petok.

He was a paper boy and football quarterback in East Toledo before he and his two siblings moved with his mother, the former Mary G. Gall, into the Block family home in South Toledo when she married Mr. Block in 1965.

"He was older when he came into our house, but he was a full member of our family," said Allan Block, chairman and chief executive officer of Block Communications Inc. "Paul Block, Jr., played a major role in his life for sure. Gary had great respect for Father."

"My dad really revered him; he really admired Block," Ms. Petok said. "I think that entire new side of the family thought really highly of them."

As a newly combined family, the Blocks and Petoks spent the summer of '65 traveling around Europe. They rented a house above Lake Geneva, Mr. Block said.

"According to my stepfather, that was to have us all bond together as a family," said his younger brother, Alexander "Sonny" Petok. "That was quite the trip, one of the highlights of my life and his life."

During that trip, Gary Petok spent three weeks building an addition to a youth hostel in Montreux, Switzerland, with a group of teenage European volunteers with the International Civil Service, The Blade reported upon his return to Toledo.

The teens also fished and swam in a lake, learned songs from the nine represented countries, and compared Great Britain to the United States, The Blade article states - and there was some horseplay on the job, too.

"We have all made good friends," Mr. Petok, the only American volunteer, said at the time. "I think we got more out of this experience than if we had visited the hostels as transients."

Mr. Petok went on other family vacations, including ski trips in Montreal and a trip to Cap-d'Ail, France, in 1969, Mr. Block said.

He was a Blade intern in the summers of 1970 and 1971.

"Gary was the oldest in our combined family," said Mr. Block, who is five years younger. "This is part of Paul Block, Jr.'s family."

The Petoks lived in Toledo's Birmingham neighborhood, where they were active at Calvin United Church of Christ. Their father, also Alexander Petok, died in 1957, when the oldest was 8 years old. Their mother, Mary, who was 16 when she had her first son, put her three kids in an orphanage for one year until she found a job and took her children back, Mr. Block said.

"We were basically brought up by my mother before she married in '65 and everything changed," said the younger Mr. Petok, who lives in Alpharetta, Ga. The two were estranged at the time of his death.

"We were pretty close when we were younger. It wasn't until he went away to high school that we kind of got separated, and then we didn't see much of each other," Mr. Petok said. "And then he and I both went to Ohio University at the same time. He was a senior and I was a freshman, and he helped me out there."

In the mid-1960s, he would go to Teen Town dances in Toledo. He and his girlfriend were crowned king and queen of Teen Town, Mr. Petok said.

"He was very popular," the brother said. "He was the quarterback of the Birmingham School football team, and he was quite the jock."

The Saturday after he died, his son, David, was to get married, and it was Gary Petok's request that the wedding go on.

"I remember him fondly. He's my favorite person," Ms. Petok said.

She said he had a great sense of humor and made the nurses in the hospital laugh.

"He used to drink pretty heavily. He had stopped that though, about five years ago, and just became a happy, old, content man that smelled like cigarettes and would watch a lot of movies," she said, noting he was "a Marlboro Reds man."

Born Jan. 15, 1949, in East Toledo, to Mary and Alexander Petok, he attended Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania and then graduated from Ohio University with a degree in English and received his juris doctorate from the University of Toledo's college of law. He worked as assistant attorney general in Columbus before moving south for a job as counsel for the former University of Texas-Pan American in McAllen, Texas.

While working for the school, he met Homeira Hejazi, who was studying mathematics at the time. They were married for a few years and divorced when their triplets were 2 years old.

He had two marriages prior to that and another following. His fourth marriage ended in divorce after about 10 years.

His longest-held job was as a main attorney for Universal Health Services Inc., representing the hospital system in health-care litigation, his daughter said.

"His mantra raising us was: 'Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't steal.' Like a true lawman," said Ms. Petok, of San Antonio, who has tattoos of two of his other sayings.

Soon after he moved from McAllen to Austin for work, his ex-wife moved there so her kids could be close to their dad, Ms. Petok said. He ended up retiring in the 2010s a few minutes from their mom's house, which Ms. Petok said made it convenient for the holidays and for them to take each other to appointments when the kids were busy.

The triplets spent every other weekend with him and had dinner with him every Monday.

"We spent a lot of time having photos and just doing typical '90s kids things," she said, recalling riding their tricycles around the park and eventually learning to ride a two-wheel bicycle from their father.

"I just remember having a lot of fun at his house," Ms. Petok said. "We'd go over there and we'd watch cartoons and eat a bunch of cereal and SpaghettiOs."

With his kids, he enjoyed talking about movies, music, and sports. He also liked to read and write.

He was a big Buckeyes fan.

"The last words my dad ever said, the Ohio State game was on, I think they were playing Indiana, and he kind of muttered, 'What's the score?'" Ms. Petok said. "I said, 'It's 7-3. We're up.' And then he gave a thumbs-up."

He was a member of the Ohio State Bar Association and the State Bar of Texas.

He always donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, his daughter said.

Surviving are his sons, David and Kameron Petok; daughter, Leila Petok; brother, Alexander "Sonny" Petok; sister, Sandra Dewar; stepbrothers, John Robinson, Allan, and Cyrus Block; and several nieces and nephews.

A small service will be held for family in Texas.