Sunday morning, February 19, David was freed from his daily grief and reunited with his Poochie, Mary Lu, in heavenly paradise. He passed away peacefully as his three daughters held his hands and kissed his face, all the while reassuring him that they would be “OK.”
Dave was a true gentleman, who possessed the perfect combination of humility, integrity, honesty, compassion and humor. Above all else, family was his priority, and he showered each one of us with unconditional love. Over the years he enjoyed attending his grandsons’ football, baseball, basketball, soccer and swim events, and never shied away from conveying what the coaches did incorrectly. He loved us girls with all his heart and expressed it daily with his morning videos.
Dave was well known for his Italian cooking skills, specifically his pizza. He took pride in his Italian heritage and shared his culinary talents by delivering homemade pizzas to countless people over the years. He was truly a remarkable man who will be missed by many, but nowhere near the level of his three Poochies. We will be “OK,” but will miss him every second of every minute of every day.
Dave was predeceased by the love of his life, Mary Lu, who has waited for him to join her in heaven for a long six months, and his sister, Mary Lou Hart. Left to cherish his memory are his three daughters, Nancy (Greg) Szczublewski, Betsy (John) Noonan and Cynthia (Joseph) Bojarski; grandsons, Corey (Angela), Kyle (Sara), Casey, Scott, Blake, Joshua and Christian; great-grandsons Hank, Jay and Carl. Dave also is survived by his brother, Nicholas Stratso (Sally); nieces, Sandy, Nicole and Chelsea; nephews, Bobby, Jimmy and Steve, and countless friends, including Gus Finorky.
There are many deserving a thank you for all the support given to our family. We do want to thank the exceptional staff of St. Vincent Medical Center’s ICU unit, for the care given in Dave’s final days. Memorials may be considered to Shriners Children Hospital of Chicago, 2211 North Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60707, or Hospice of NW Ohio, 30000 East River Road, Perrysburg, Ohio 43551.
Friends gathered to honor Dave’s memory at Sujkowski-Walker Funeral Home, 830 Lime City Road, Rossford, on Sunday, February 26, from 2 to 7 p.m., with a rosary at 7 p.m. A Funeral Mass was on Monday, February 27, at 10:30 a.m., at All Saints Catholic Church, Lime City Road, Rossford, which was livestreamed on the church’s Facebook page. Burial was in St. Rose Cemetery, Perrysburg.
In closing, it was Dave’s wishes to share a synopsis of his professional life and give some insight to the lessons learned in his career.
Well, I am gone, so you can stop sharing emails.
I was born on February 4, 1940, in the bedroom of a little house at the end of Miles Avenue in Bellevue, Ohio. My parents, Nick and Frances Stratso, rented the house for $1 per week. Dad earned enough to pay for it working for four hours at the library. The rest of what he earned the week I was born must have gone to repair the bed that broke while the doctor was delivering me.
I grew up in Bellevue, graduating from Bellevue High School in 1958, and then from the Ohio State University in 1962. Mary Lu Sauber, also a graduate of Bellevue High, and I married in 1961. With my degree in industrial relations, I began my career with Anchor Hocking Glass in Lancaster, Ohio. After an assignment in New Jersey, Mary Lu and I returned to Ohio and I was hired at the Libbey Glass plant in Toledo. Libbey was then a division of the former Owens-Illinois, when it was one of the best large corporations in the country.
My 25-year career with O-I was entirely in the Toledo area, spending time as personnel director at the Duraglas facility, as manager of the Toledo area employment office of O-I, corporate salaried administrator, and retiring as personnel manager of corporate staff in 1990. I was a good soldier and did my civic duty as well, volunteering with the United Way, participating on studies sponsored by the Corporation for Effective Government, working with the Bureau of Employment for the State of Ohio in modernizing their service during the late 1970’s, and participating on numerous panels dealing with employment issues.
I prided myself in being a strong employee advocate, which was not always endearing to management. Nothing pleased me more than taking my battle flag from my credenza and planting it firmly on behalf of someone wronged, or something unfair. It helped to have an ethical, moral management holding up the limb onto which I may have strayed a little too far. As management changed over the years, the battle flag did not come out as often, unless it was for a grave injustice. No one was holding up many limbs anymore. A situation that helped me in my decision to retire early in 1990.
That brings me to a topic close to my business heart; fairness. The word bandied about excessively these days is “equality.” Fairness and equality are not interchangeable. Equality has its place, but not the prominent one society has forced upon us. Who can dispute the concept of equal pay for equal work? But how could you support a recently hired supervisor with equal responsibility being paid the same as a similarly rated supervisor who has 15 years of experience and has received regular increases. But that is what the liberal judgment on equal pay mandates. What is lost is basic fairness. Explained differently, a 9-year-old with an 8 p.m. bedtime cries “no fair,” because his 12-yearold brother has a 9 p.m. bedtime. Yes, it is fair. It is not equal, but it is fair. The obsession with “equality” has suffocated “fairness.” That is my deathbed lecture.