Prominent Joliet Resident Patrick Magosky Passes Away at 72

Photo: Patrick and Andrea Magosky pose for a photo while in Ireland. Photo courtesy of Serena Magosky.

Prominent Joliet resident Patrick Magosky passed away Wednesday. He was 72 years old.

Magosky was a lot of things. He was a father, a husband, a friend, a writer, a handyman, an accountant, a landlord, a chemical operator, a mechanic, an outdoorsman, a historian and a craftsman. He was also a teacher and that’s how his wife, Andrea, and daughter, Serena, remember him.

Pat taught Andrea how to roller skate, ice skate, ski, run outboard motors and how to cut down trees, to name a few.

“He taught me so much that I never would have done,” Andrea said. “I was never afraid to do anything because he taught me how to do it.”

Andrea met Pat when she was 16 and he was 21. She married him when she was 18. But they didn’t take a honeymoon until they celebrated 25 years of marriage and she didn’t get her wedding ring set until 10 years into the marriage.

“He said he wasn’t going to waste money on a diamond that wasn’t going to last,” she said.

And last it did. On April 21, Patrick and Andrea celebrated their 50th anniversary. A cake was brought to the nursing home where Patrick was staying and they celebrated with the staff and residents.

“We shared it with them,” Andrea said.

Andrea attributes her marriage lasting so long to one simple piece of advice: Always kiss goodnight and never let anything go beyond that.

“Don’t argue, don’t fight, but always remember to kiss goodnight,” she said. “There’s nothing worth carrying over and we never did.”

While Patrick was in a nursing home. People would tell Andrea that she didn’t have to go see him everyday, but that was never an option for her.

“Anyone who has anybody in a nursing home should visit them every day,” she said. “You need to be there. You need to see what’s going on.”

Serena was Patrick’s only daughter and they were very close. He would bring Serena to all her activities like cheerleading practice, softball and dance. When she got married, he bought her a house.

When Pat became ill, it was important to Serena that she be named the primary caregiver so she could look after him. When he died this past Wednesday, she took care of all the funeral plans. She didn’t want her mother to go through it alone.

“I want to make this very special for my dad,” she said.

She remembers her father as a man with a sense of humor, citing one special memory of her dad that happened when she was in her early 20s. She got her hair foiled and loved the way it looked.

“It was pretty,” she said. “It was so cool and I thought I was so awesome.”

But when her dad saw it, he was not as impressed.

“You look like a skunk,” he told her.

Serena remembers the incident as something she can look back at and laugh.

But like her mother, Patrick always had something to teach her.

He taught her how to fish, drive a cruiser boat, drywall, roof, fix a running toilet and work on cars.

When Pat worked as a landlord, Serena would go with him to assist in any renovations. Acting as the nurse to his doctor, she would hand him any tools he needed.

After her brother’s house caught on fire, Serena helped do renovations.

“I worked side by side with my dad,” she said. “We did almost all of the repairs ourselves. When he had something special to do he would include me and ask me what I thought.”

But for all that Patrick was able to accomplish, he was never extravagant. Not even when he was almost knighted in Canada for helping to build an airport and a church. He was 18 and needed to be 21.

He would give you the shirt off his back and would always be willing to lend a hand.

If friends of the family had something wrong with their car, they would call Pat and he would go help them, even if it was the middle of the night.

If people were having a difficult time financially, Pat would bring food to them.

“He was very loving, very caring,” Serena said.

Patrick leaves behind his wife Andrea, daughter Serena and son Sean. His other son, P. Seth Magosky, preceded Patrick in death in 2007.

The wake for Patrick will be held from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, May 15 at St. Patrick’s church in Joliet. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 16 also at St. Patrick’s.

For anyone who would like to donate to Historic Impressions, which has plans to reprint Magosky’s first book, ”The First 35 Years of Joliet History,” an account will soon be set up at Chase under the name Historic Impressions. Proceeds will go toward further historic research.