A Memorial Tribute to our friend, Thomas Kopetskie

Early Life

In his own words... Thomas was born on September 13, 1928 in Coal Township to Thomas P. Kopetsky and Florentina Margaret Buczynski Kopetsky.

He had two siblings, Edward and Leonard. As often happened at that time, Thomas’ last name was not spelled the same as his parents.

Thomas attended St. Stephens Polish School for eight years and was taught by the Black Franciscans from Massachusetts. He believed they were the best instructors he had during his 14 years of education.

During my time at St. Stephen’s, Father Claude Skiraz asked me to attend a Seminary School in Athols Springs, NY to study to become a priest.

At the dinner table that night I told my Father. He asked, “How much a year will this cost?” I told him $500 a year. He looked at me and said, “Son I don’t make $500 a year. If it wasn’t for your mother, we would not have the beautiful home we live in. Not only does she work in the factory all day, she comes home, prepares our meals, and spends some evening hours making our home more beautiful”.

During six of his years at St. Stephens his studies encompassed strong studies in the Polish Language and history. These studies made a great impression on him to the point he felt half Polish and half American.

From Tom’s early age he had a strong love for the area of Coal Township with its beautiful mountains and the streams and lakes where he fished very successfully and abundantly.

When Tom was about 7 or 8 he started a custom that lasted many years. He would go out to the beautiful mountains near their home and search for the perfect family Christmas tree and drag it back home, sometimes over two miles.

As was the custom, children did not get an allowance, so Thomas earned pocket money by picking rags and scraps and selling them to the Jewish scrap man that came around the neighborhood. This was a common thing in the 1930’s, as well as picking huckleberries in the summer months from June until August and selling them to the neighbors and downtown residents as this was another money maker.

Throughout the time of Thomas’ youth he purchase every piece of sporting equipment, footballs, baseballs, gloves and bats with his own money.

Thomas decided at age 8 he wanted to play the accordion. His parents accommodated that desire and his father went to the downtown area in Shamokin to the Parenca’s Music store to arrange for his lessons.

After four years of lessons he decided to form his own orchestra.

“Tommy K and the Kaydettes” was formed and they began playing in the neighborhood bar for $1.00 an hour.

Thomas was later invited to join the Mike Sickora Band as their accordionist. After playing with them for six months, he was asked to take over the band accordionist and vocalist.

In 1937 Thomas’ Father and Uncle Roman began building an independent coal breaker which helped the independent miners. Thomas watched and helped in the breaker during summer break. His Uncle Roman taught him the ropes of running the breaker engine and the coal grinding machines.

By the end of that summer, Thomas was pretty confident and adept at running the breaker. In the meantime his Uncle managed to leave early after Thomas’ Father’s first run to pick up the coal and conveniently return before the last trip, leaving Thomas to work alone all day. He went back to school that September and continued his studies. When school was out he went back to the breaker where he ran the entire coal operation from the beginning of his summer vacation without a flaw until one day in late August, when the machines were jammed. Although he was able to solve many problems through the summer, this jam was impossible for Thomas to release. During this particular summer Thomas’ father made many trips from the independent mines with the coal we needed at the breaker.

He would unload the coal from his truck and go out and make many more return trips. But on this particular day, on his next to the last trip, he noticed that the coal in the shoot was not moving. After his second trip to the mountains he came in to where Thomas was working and asked what is wrong? I explained to him that a big hard rock was blocking the grinding machine. His Father asked “where is your Uncle?” Thomas responded that he is probably at Konetcznikas Bar, that is where he has been all summer.

Me, your eleven year old son has been running and operating this breaker every day this summer. His Father fell into a rage, saying “no Son of mine is going to be in the coal business. I’ll shut this place down today”.

And he did! Imagine if you can and eleven year old boy operating an independent coal mine plant for four months alone. This story is true!

Thomas attended Coal township High School and after he graduated he encouraged some of his fellow graduates to enlist in the service.

A college education was a guaranteed enlistment benefit.

Together they went to Harrisburg for their physical exam.

Six friends passed their physicals and Thomas failed due to flat feet and high blood pressure.

He said that the ride home from Harrisburg was the longest ride of his life.

Thomas had to take another path since the service was out. He took a position at a ladies dress shop and after working there a year he enrolled in Bloomsburg University as a Penn State student.

His sports skilled allowed him to walk on to the college baseball team in his freshman year as a pitcher. The following year he went on to the main campus of Penn State as a sophomore. He was captain of the intramural basketball team and that year they won the school intramural championship.

He left Penn state after his sophomore year due to lack of funds. He returned to Coal Township and worked for a dry cleaning firm from 1949 to 1950.

In 1950 Thomas’ life took another life changing turn. As a young man he did not date, but his lifelong dream was to find a Polish, blued eyed blonde haired girl to share his life. He met his dream girl, Florence Dombroskie.

She came from a family of 18 children. And as Paul Harvey often said, “and now for the rest of the story”. They were married on January 28, 1950, and had 7 children.

Family

Thomas and Florence had seven children. One died at childbirth. Their oldest son, Thomas graduated from Bloomsburg University with a teaching degree. He rose to the Assistant Superintendent of Stroudsburg School District. He and his wife Barbara (Zajac) are now retired and living in York, PA. They have two children Christine and Thomas.

Thomas’ daughter Kathy Roach and husband reside in Berwick, PA.

Kathy, an RN is retired from the Geisinger Center. Jim runs The Kehl Insurance Shoppe. They have one daughter Melissa.

Thomas’ daughter Mary Miklasz is a teacher at the Atlantica Cape Community College in Mays Landing, NJ. She has one daughter Meredith.

Thomas’ son Stephen has a PHD in psychology and retired from the Wisconsin Dept. of Health. His wife is Karen (Andries) is employed with the Department of Health.

Thomas’ son Mark is the regional manager and pharmacist at the Giant Store in Bethlehem, PA. He and Matthew are twins. His wife Krista (Stout) is also a pharmacist. They have two children, Matthew and Ava.

Thomas and Florence lost their son Matthew at the age of 37. Matt was an outstanding athlete at Bishop Hafey and also an “all around” athlete, much like his Father. He and Mark were twins.

Thomas’ Michael is a Broadcast Hub Operator for Nexstar Media Group in Spartanburg, SC. He has the greatest admiration for Michael, who at the age of 17, senior year in High School developed kidney failure. Over the span of his life he had three kidney transplants. Michael went on to attend Wilkes University and graduated from the University of Northern Colorado. His first job after graduation was for Starz Corporation and worked there for twenty years. He had to leave Colorado weather and moved to Wilmington, NC and is now currently employed in South Carolina.

Career

1950 was an auspicious year for Thomas; He was hired by the Prudential Insurance Company as an agent and thus began his successful career path.

Thomas sold insurance in the Ranshaw area and other adjoining communities. After five years he was promoted to the Shenandoah District as Sales Manager. I moved my family from Coal Township to Frackville.

Thomas and family moved to Hazleton in 1970 to a beautiful home, it was an upgrade from their previous home. He was offered a promotion to District Sales Manager for The Prudential Insurance Company until August 1982. He retired officially from Prudential in 1984.

Service to Community

In 1962 the family lived in Bloomsburg, Thomas was very active in the St. Columbia Catholic Church serving as Master of Ceremonies for the dedication of the church.

During his early years in Hazleton, he was active in the St. Stanislaus Polish Roman Catholic Church. Four of his children were educated at the school that was affiliated with the church.

His very first Monday in Hazleton, Monsignor Drogowski called Thomas out to the ball field and introduced him to Mr. Lou Barletta and other league officials. He must have heard about Thomas’ baseball skills. He went on to serve 15 years with the little league as coach and later manager of Bob’s Sporting Goods Team. They won most of the league championships during that period. Beside baseball, Thomas was active in the choir and served as lector during Monsignor Drogowski’s time at St. Stanislaus. Thomas was also the Chairman of the committee of Father’s 50th anniversary celebration in the priesthood.

St. Stanislaus Church membership and attendance had declined during the years and this disappointed Thomas. In 1987, Father Louis Garbarcik arrived as pastor and immediately things began to turn around and he was instrumental in making us Polish family again. Unfortunately, Father Garbarcik died in an accident at the church while cleaning off the new snow so his members would have a safe steps into the church for services.

This was December 26, 2009 and he later succumbed to his injuries on January 1, 2010 at the Lehigh Valley Hospital. In memory of Father Garbarcik, five members of St. Stanislaus parish formed the Reverend Louis S. Garbarcik Memorial Scholarship Foundation.

Thomas was president of the corporation. This foundation has, thru the years, awarded scholarships to over 85 Polish-American local students from the Greater Hazleton Area Schools and Marian Catholic High School. Since 2011 over $100,000 has been awarded.

The Greater Hazleton Polonaise Society

Thomas’ second love has been The Greater Hazleton Polonaise Society created in September 17, 1977. He was one of the five founding members.

Within five years membership had grown to approximately over 270 members, all which had roots to Poland. They had to turn away interested potential members because Lobitz’s Catering could not accommodate and more.

Many events were held at Lobitz’s, Genetti’s and also Capriotti’s through the years.

In 1979, Thomas made his first of five trips to Poland. He saw many unbelievable cultural sites and tasted many Polish dishes. This trip vaguely satisfied his curiosity of his native Poland.

He made four further trips, and as a result he created a sister city alliance between Hazleton and Gorzow Wielkopolskie in 1995. In the late 1990’s Thomas arranged for a complete Polish Dance Troupe to come to Hazleton.

They performed at Funfest and other locations. He also took them touring to New Jersey to see the sites and other locations of interest.

The Sister Cities funds paid for their visit.

Unfortunately, interest in the Sister City program failed to arouse the Polish Community in Hazleton.

All contact with Gorzow was stopped and Thomas stopped any personal contact with the Mayor of that city, although he did receive a few Christmas cards from the President of their Chamber of Commerce.

While local membership and interest was dropping Leona and Henry Kriesl were standout members, always there, but they unfortunately passed away.

Due to the death of the senior members our Society was reduced to under 50 members and many of those did not attend meetings. Also Thomas’ wife Florence began her long journey with Alzheimer’s in 1990 and Thomas’ attention was on taking care of her as her health deteriorated until her passing on July 2, 2008.

Since 2022 and younger group of Polish/American’s have joined the Society. They become interested in their Polish roots, traditions and heritage and membership is growing again. As a result The Greater Hazleton Polonaise Society is alive again.

This was due, in part, to these three women who joined the society and began recruiting their family members and friends to join. They are Cheryl Sabol, Michelle Faleshock and Marianne Serra.

Your friends, The Polonaise Society.