Michael Robert Kolesar

Mr. Michael Robert Kolesar, 65, of Advance passed away Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at his home. He was born December 23, 1945 in Bridgeport, CT to Michael and Helen Kolesar. Mr. Kolesar was an educator for 32 years and retired from the Rye, New York Public School System in 2005. He was a member of Holy Family Catholic Church. He was preceded in death by his parents. Surviving is his wife Barbara Ann Kolesar; two daughters, Jennifer Ann Kashatus and husband David of Carrboro and Elizabeth Ann Connolly and husband Chris of Easton, CT and three grandchildren, Audrey and Sally Kashatus and Sean Connolly. A memorial mass will be held 11:00 a.m. Saturday, October 8, 2011 at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in White Plains, NY with Msgr. John F. Bennett officiating. The family will receive friends following the service in the community room of the church. Online condolences may be made to www.hayworth-miller.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eulogy for Michael Kolesar Monday Sept 19, 2011 Many of you know Michael through this church, from Suntree Drive, through his love of basketball, through his devotion to Wake Forest. Some of you know him as a constant gardener, a retired educator, a perennial decorator of his home, a model train enthusiast, a master of trivia, a world traveler. Some of you know him as a friend, others as a neighbor. A few of us know him as family. We called him Michael, Mike, Panta, and Daddy. Michael was a great traveler and brought his young family through 45 of our 50 states, loading up the car for the annual summer trek the day after school closed. He showed us sites we could not have imagined, and beauty beyond words. Every detail was meticulously planned, every day filled to the max with mileage calculated, hotels reserved, dinners scheduled, tours lined up. Traveling with the Kolesars was no easy task however, as Mike had a take no prisoners attitude about our journeys -- casual stops were unheard of, and variations from original itinerary not allowed. Our Elizabeth posed on horseback, traveled to the next stop of Canyon de Chelly, and all the while battling the measles when she was about 6 years old. Michael also loved to arrange travel for others and in his role as travel agent, long before the ability of the internet to allow booking from home, he enjoyed setting up trips for others. His directions were legendary and one never got lost, if you followed his suggestions. Well, except once in Florence, Italy when he somehow got turned around and it was Jennifer, who clearly had inherited the direction gene piped up with ""you want to go to the Ponte Vecchio ??"" and led us all straight to the site. Because of him, our family enjoyed everything from a castle in Austria to the Four Corners in Arizona; from the Vatican to the beaches of Bermuda; from the Grand Canyon to the ski slopes of Vermont; from the Piazza Navona to the original Disneyland. Mike's penchant for trivia is well known. And he loved to play along with Jeopardy on TV and delighted in the quiz bowl teams he coached in both Pleasantville and Rye High Schools. And Michael loved kids, mostly high school ones, and still to this day he kept in touch with a handful of students from both schools. Invited to 30 year class reunions, he would eagerly attend and re-connect with students of years past. In 2009 a student from Rye High School wrote: ""Mike is not just an accomplished librarian and academic team coach. He is also a teacher in the truest sense of the word. While formally teaching, he always helped his students with anything they wanted to know, school-wise or life-wise. I remember going out to dinner with him one evening when I was in college. One of his old teacher buddies walked up to the table to rib Mike a little. The visitor to our table found out I was a former student and, with a smirk, asked me, ‘What did Mike teach you? Shop? Computers?' and I looked him in the eye and responded, ‘He taught me about life.' The veracity behind my words quieted the man, and he looked at Mike with new found respect, one lifelong educator to another."" And Michael loved his family. One only had to look around yesterday at Hayworth-Miller to see the photos which usually grace our home. Walls are literally covered with collages of travel and family, and most recently, grandkids. He was quietly, yet fiercely proud of Jennifer and Elizabeth, and loved being a dad. Michael took great pleasure during college years of rooting for the Richmond Spiders and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Even though he was not a man who lavished compliments in recent years, he knew what fine people his daughters had become, both in their careers of math and science, and their marriages to Chris and Dave. Michael was delighted by his three grandchildren and it is one of the greatest sadnesses that he did not live long enough to see Audrey, Sally and Sean grow up. Perhaps Audrey has inherited his interest in the weather, Sally his dimples and love of the Beatles, Sean his love of trains. And MICHAEL LOVED HIS CLOTHES!! Whether it was Sunday mass here in this church, or out on the golf course years ago, or just shopping, or traveling, Michael always loved to dress up in bright colors--especially plaids. Peggy Schumacher of this parish classified Michael as ""liturgically appropriate"" in his outfits on Sundays -- he looked like a Christmas tree in December and an Easter Egg in April. Corduroys with whales and lobsters, school buses, and reindeer were his everyday style. AND what a collections of plaids he had, causing the yearbook staff at Rye High School to nickname him ""Pants."" Many of you know that Michael was not well for the last few years. But his generous spirit, his love of family, and his eagerness to please and serve were still there in the background of his life. Today we mourn the loss of a neighbor and friend, a husband and daddy, a father-in-law and grandpa, and celebrate the life of a good and decent man. Written by Barbara Kolesar Delivered by Peter Kashatus The Kolesar family thanks you for being here today and invites you to join them for lunch in the Family Room of the Holy Family Church.

Visitation:
The family will receive friends following the service in the community room of the church.

Service:
A memorial mass will be held 11:00 a.m. Saturday, October 8, 2011 at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in White Plains, NY with Msgr. John F. Bennett officiating.