Stanley F. Brohoski

Stanley Brohoski passed on December 22, 2017 with his family by his side. He was born Stanislaus-Franciszek Brochocki on January 29, 1928 in Vilno, which is now part of Lithuania. He lived on a large family estate called Wereskow near the town of Nowogrudek, Poland. He had three sisters: Anna, Hanka and Irene. The children each had their own horse and dog and they were great horse riders. The estate comprised of some 7,500 acres, employed approximately 100 workers, provided timber for the Polish Navy, horses for the Polish Cavalry, had its own distillery, cheese factory and chapel and raised upwards of 100 cows and 50 horses in addition to producing wheat and potatoes. On September 18, 1939, at 2 AM, the family was awoken and told that the Russians were invading from the east. By this time, Stan’s father had already left the family to fight the German’s in the west, so the children were left with their mother to cope on their own. They loaded a few prized possessions onto horse-drawn wagons and fled through the forests to the Lithuanian frontier where they stayed until December. They then took a night train across Latvia to Estonia, where they boarded a ferry to Sweden. From Sweden they flew to England via Copenhagen and Amsterdam. The estate is now part of Belarus. In the UK, the family was scattered with the children being placed in separate private Catholic Schools or convents. In the meantime Stan’s father passed away in Warsaw in 1942. His mother joined the Polish Red Cross and ran a home in a small castle “Craig-Hall” near Blairgowrie in Scotland as a place of leave or recuperation for the Polish Air Force pilots. Stan went to school in northern England in Ampleforth where he played rugby, was the fastest sprinter in the school, and became the best ‘rifle shot’ and could shoot a 16” target from 500 yards without a scope or gun rest. He graduated and went to London to attend a Polish college affiliated with London University. Having had limited contact with the opposite sex up to this point he quickly developed a social life, became an expert ballroom dancer, and was tearing around town on a small motorcycle. After the war his mother, her husband, Bob, who she met at Craig-Hall, and sister, Irene, emigrated to Canada and settled in Abercorn, Quebec on an 85 acre dairy and started selling milk. Stan was not enthralled with the below-poverty existence and headed to Montreal where he received a small scholarship from the Archbishop of Montreal and attended McGill University to study engineering. He graduated in 1954 and went to work for a steel company, then a consulting/inspection company and finally had some money in his pockets, a nice (used) car, and a few clothes. Stan was offered a position at Chrysler which took him to Detroit. He rented a room in a bachelor house and his social life exploded by hosting parties and socializing with the Chrysler Ski Club. In 1958 he went to a ‘Young Republican’ party where he met his future wife, Sally, who was an interior designer at the time. They married in 1959 and then had 4 kids: Michael, Suzanne, Dianne and Peter. Stan went on to work for General Motors and had an interesting career there which included designing and building a new type of refrigerator at Frigidaire, which was a GM division. When he left his manager told him he was the most difficult person he had ever managed as Stan was always running a mile ahead of the pack. He moved the family to Narberth, Pennsylvania in 1968 and started working for Exide Battery Company where he finished his career 26 years later in 1993. The highlight of his time at Exide was conceptualizing, funding, selecting, and bringing a new manufacturing plant online in Richmond, Kentucky. Stan was a devoted family man who tried his best to teach his children not to take anything for granted, a reflection of his personal journey. He was constantly in motion, for better or worse, and always had several projects underway whether it be fixing up cars, boats (the Stanley Steamer series), or motorcycles. He says that in 2006 he bought his 55th car, and he didn’t stop there. He enjoyed rounding up the family for games of tennis or to go waterskiing, often by ringing a loud cowbell too too early in the morning to get everyone up and going. Or packing them up in the family station wagon for a roadtrip to the Jersey Shore, Montreal, or a number of other destinations. After retirement, he and Sally spent all summers in Avalon, New Jersey and some winters in Cape Coral, Florida before it became too unbearable to be so far from the arrivals of grandkids and they moved back to the Philadelphia suburbs. They enjoyed travelling the world, and participating in gourmet food groups back at home. Stan is survived by his son, Michael and wife, Denise who live in Portland Oregon, Suzanne and her husband, Michael, living in Collegeville PA, Dianne in Wayne PA, and Peter and his wife, Cindy, in the Washington DC area. He has 11 grandkids: Meghan, Erin, Michael Jr, Daniel, Paige, Ryan, Brooke, Cole, twins Alex and Andrew, and Samantha. Relatives and friends are invited to his memorial service to be held January 6,2018 at 10:30 A.M at St. Norberts Chapel, 50 Leopard Rd, Paoli, PA 19301. Private burial to follow.