Obituary of Stanley James Dytrych

Stanley James Dytrych was born July 29, 1927 in Columbus, Nebraska. His parents were James and Sylvia Dytrych. Stanley died peacefully on August 11, 2012 at the age of 85. His wife Helen and sister in law Belva were with him. He had spent the last year at Manor Care Nursing Home in Tacoma recovering from a stroke. In 1949, Stan married Bernadine Lahmann. To this union 5 children were born, Patricia, David , Russell, Michael, and Karen. Stan worked for John Deere and everything was green and yellow. He made Pat, his oldest daughter a green and yellow swing set and a green and yellow checker board. His sons, Dave, Mike, and Russ played with John Deere tractors - no Case or International Harvester in our house! There was such a big age difference between Pat and Karen, the youngest daughter, that Karen was an aunt the minute she was born. Stan's first grandchild Vicki and Karen were like sisters and he had a hard time introducing them to people because no one believed one was his daughter and one was his granddaughter. Stan came from a strong Czech background and his family spoke it fluently! While at his parents' house for the holidays in Clarkson, NE, the children would be eavesdropping and suddenly the conversation would change to Czech. That ended that. By the way, there is a very well-known story about a dead body upstairs at the grandparents' house. You'll have to ask one of his children about that. Stan taught his children the importance and value of hard work, not because he needed their help, but to make them productive adults. As a result, his children and grandchildren loved him and respected him. His grandchildren were the light of his eye and he teased them all the time. They all loved him so much that there were a lot of tears when they had to go home. Even though working a lot, he managed to have time for his religion and many friends wherever he was, whether it was on a cruise or in his own backyard. Stan and Bernadine were divorced in 1973. In November 1974 Stan married Helen Howell. During Stan's early years he lived with his parents in Nebraska where the family were farmers. After leaving home Stan began working as a mechanic on farm implement equipment. He continued in that field until his retirement in 1989. He made many friends with the local farmers in Nebraska while fixing their equipment. He was always known to have a good story or two and had a real gift of gab. In 1979 Stan and Helen decided to move west and moved to Tacoma. Helen had family in Tacoma so the move made sense. Stan continued his mechanic career and instead of working on John Deere tractors he worked on John Deere heavy equipment. If it had a John Deere logo either green for farm or yellow for construction equipment Stan probably needed to have the item. He had quite a collection of John Deere items--with the farm implements being his favorite whether it was a die cast model, a T-shirt, or a blanket. It made Christmas shopping for him easy. After his retirement from Smith Tractor he spent a couple years as a messenger for WestOne Bank where Helen worked taking the interoffice mail between branches. While there he kept his reputation as a story teller and knew all the workers by name even though he only saw them for a few minutes each day. Everyone knew Stan as the "nice old guy" who was the messenger. After complete retirement Stan was a hard guy to get to sit still. He took up wood working, grandfather clock building, art crafts, lawn ornament word working, and helping the neighbors when he could. There are several family members that have bookcases, mirrors, entertainment centers, and furniture pieces that Stan made for them. He became involved with Wild Birds Unlimited in Gig Harbor and was their main "handyman" for several years and through that relationship he developed a fancy for birds and birdhouses. A bright pink and blue house was a last project that Stan completed at the nursing home just before his death. The different projects he helped neighbors with are too numerous to count. But it didn't stop at just the neighbors. Stan was a valuable resource and partner with his great nephew Jason as Jason remodeled his first home. Uncle Stan ran lots of errands and gave lots of good advice and help to Jason. Stan was always a big help to nephew Mike. Mike was also a heavy equipment mechanic and they talked on the same level. Whenever there was a car project Stan seemed to get pulled in and Mike was able to explain what he needed to Stan knowing that he and Stan were on the same wave length and Stan understood what the end goal was. Stan ran lots of errands for Mike and helped with mechanic jobs a lot more than he probably bargained for--but Stan did it in good spirit. And he was good resource for the wood working projects for the family and neighbors too. Great niece Heather lived across the alley for 10 years and Uncle Stan did lots of little home projects for her too. The neighbor Venus benefited from Stan's handyman qualities as well. Neighbors Gail and Woody also knew Stan as a good friend that they could count on to help no matter what they might need. Stan and neighbor John spent a lot of time together too. John and he collected scrap metal, copper, and picked up some extra money. They had tea together at least once a day almost every day. Suffice it to say that everyone in the neighborhood knew Stan. He was just a little social butterfly and typically you could find him walking in the neighborhood just to see what was going on at the different neighbors. Stan was a member of St Francis Cabrini Catholic church in Lakewood. He served almost every week as an usher and attended church regularly. Stan was also very proud of his service during WWII in the Navy. He served in the Pacific. He still enjoyed watching documentaries and movies about WWII and frequently told "war stories" of his time in the Pacific. Stan is survived by his wife of 37 years, Helen. He is also survived by his daughter Pat Noonan, sons David and his wife Bonnie, Russ and his wife Doris, Mike and his wife Amy, and Karen Olvera and her husband Oscar. Also surviving are his grandchildren Vicki Flaming, Nick, PJ, Danny, and Merle Nicola, Roger Noonan, Adam, Jason, Tyler, Tyson, Megan, Kelsey, and Samuel Dytrych, and Alex Olvera. There are 12 great grandchildren Ariel, Austin, Ava Grace, Blaine, Skylar, Hunter, Harley, Sidney, Bradley, Allison, Nathan, and Zane. He is also survived by his sister Dorothy Bos along with many other nieces and nephews and a host of friends. Stan passed away knowing that he was a success as a husband, father, grandfather, brother, and friend. He was loved and will be greatly missed by his family and many friends.