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Maksymilian Skupien
1943 - 2017
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Sunday, February 12, 2017
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Max on simulator
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Sunday, February 12, 2017
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Max, Stenia, Mama Ola
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Sunday, February 12, 2017
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Max and Marek
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Sunday, February 12, 2017
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Stenia & Max
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Sunday, February 12, 2017
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Max
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Saturday, February 11, 2017
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Student in 1960
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Saturday, February 11, 2017
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Arrived in Canada 1977
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Saturday, February 11, 2017
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Grand son graduation
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Saturday, February 11, 2017
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Grand children
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Saturday, February 11, 2017
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Saturday, February 11, 2017
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Grand son graduation
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Saturday, February 11, 2017
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Saturday, February 11, 2017
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Arkadiusz Skupien uploaded photo(s)
Saturday, February 11, 2017
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Captain Max
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Arkadiusz Skupien posted a condolence
Friday, February 10, 2017
To my father Maksymilian Skupien
I miss you terribly Dad. You were the best Father any one could ask for and for that I am thankful to God. I will always miss you.
Max was born on April 28, 1943 in Silesia Poland in a small mining village of Jankowice. His father, Alojzy was taken away from him at a tender age of 2, so his mother Anna was left to take care of herself and her baby boy.
Fortunately, Anna found a new husband also named Alojzy with whom she fell in love and built a new family. His new brothers and sisters, Teresa, Peter, Bernard, Henia, Kristina and Malgorzata created a very busy village home. Everyone had responsibilities and all helped, in the kitchen, barn, garden and in the fields.
Young Max was an inquisitive boy who was always eager to learn more about the world around him. He liked school like most of his classmates, but he loved to experiment, self-study and acquire deeper knowledge. Reading books and discovering how things worked filled his free time. Electricity caught his attention and he was often hiding by himself, experimenting and building his projects. Anna his mother was always watching out for him. She persuaded him not to pursue a carrier in the electrical field, fearing that he may be killed by electrical shock, which I am sure he had many. She however agreed to support his technical studies to become a surveyor. At the young age of 14 he began to attend a polytechnic institute in Opole, 200 km away from home, and quickly learned to enjoy his independence.
Besides his demanding curriculum at school, he satisfied his curious nature and picked up new hobbies to explore and experiment with. He became a keen photographer taking photos of people, scenery and everything around him. He always told me about how he frequently spent many nights in a dark room developing his negatives and prints. As you all know he continued to maintain his photo and video libraries of family and friends. It's enormous. We will all spend many years viewing them, as will our kids and their kids and we will always remember his classic trademark "Max Digital Video".
He built a tight circle of friends with whom he continued to keep contact with to his last day. My dad was a romantic, he learned to dance, toyed with playing a guitar and loved music, especially the Beetles.
This is also where Max and Stefania, my mother, were introduced. He was smitten by the intelligent, hard working and beautiful young arts student, and their love grew as they dated for several years. Unfortunately, at the age of 43, Stenia's father passed away, separating the couple as she was forced to leave school to help with home finances. They made several attempts to reconnect but only succeeded after Stenia's family had already made arrangements to immigrate to Canada. Fortunately for all of us, the young love prevailed as they rekindled their relationship and decided to wed in December 1962. To make the marriage work, Max chose to suspend his higher education at AGH University of science and technology in Krakow and Stefania turned down her opportunity to immigrate with her family. This year at Christmas would have been our parents 55th year wedding anniversary.
To support and build his family, he took a job as a junior surveyor. Their income was modest forcing them to move in with Anna his mother and her large family. Max advanced quickly to become a significant chief surveyor in the Polish coal mines of Jankowice, Anna, and Borynia. With the help of both the Stocki and Skupien families Max and Stefania built a beautiful, comfortable house and started their family.
Max's life changed forever with the birth of both me and then Marek. He cherished his time with us and never tired of our questions. By the time we could talk and listen we were already engaging in long conversations about any subject, music, books, movies, technology, politics... We kept him busy. He often took us sledding and skiing on the village hills. We built train and car sets together and raced them often. He showed us how to build and fly kites, and fix our bikes, he was a very good teacher. He encouraged our education and curiosity and was always understanding and patient. He always asked, "could you do anything differently, could you do any better, and are you happy with your results".
During several visits to Canada both Max and Stenia rebuilt their close relationship with Babcia Olga (mother), Chester (brother) and many friends who are here today.
They believed that the potential for their kids was much better if they immigrated to Canada. So in October of 1977 our family boarded a plane and we left Poland.
Starting a new life in Canada required hard work. Max and Stefania accepted jobs so that they could pay the bills, often taking on the equivalent of two or three at the same time. I don't know how they did it. Max only retired after a debilitating heart attack 22 years ago.
Mark and I were curious and demanding kids. Max encouraged and participated with us in all activities; model airplanes, swimming, skiing, fishing, and boating. Our dad had an endless repertoire of skills and knowledge. He showed us how to participate in all of these activities with passion, dedication, and attention to detail. He always used endless books, magazines and computer sources to research a subject, understand the concepts and then add his own ingenuity to make it that much better. His methodical, accurate, and purposeful approach allowed us to build electronic devices, power supplies, tools, scratch built model airplanes, fishing gear, and assembled countless computer systems. Our house always looked like Santa's Toy shop. Our poor mother had to navigate through our messes and projects, while living in a home that often smelled of glue and paint fumes.
When Marek and I left home to peruse engineering school he was very proud, he was keenly interested in all our subjects, followed our progress closely, encouraged our challenges and consoled our disappointments. He was divided between cheering us on and greatly missing our presence at home. I know that he never stopped wishing for us to come home to Oshawa.
Once he became an empty nester he had free time to pursue new interests resulting in a new curiosity for computer technology. At first he called often for advice on hardware choices, configuration and setup, virus protection and useful computer software. Like always he devoted countless hours to study and research his subject.
With computer access his learning greatly accelerated and in no time he became the computer expert to us and many of you. His favorite computer pastime was to fly jet liners all over the world using the latest flight simulator software and accessories. He continued to update his simulator system right up to last week. He loved to show to us the latest capability in graphics, simulated airplanes, scenery and airports. Whenever Mark or I were traveling he would follow our flight plan on his simulator, take off, land and fly around the destinations we were currently visiting. We would call him to tell him we landed and he would always respond, "I know, because I was there... virtually of course". We see his body here at this viewing but I am convinced that he just got in to one of his virtual planes put on the captain hat and flew away to the heavens. I am sure of that because I was trying to use his computer yesterday and it was awfully slow and over taxed.
Max was frequently preoccupied with some new challenge and would work on it diligently. His endless skills became a resource to us all and he enjoyed helping others and sharing his knowledge on all subjects. He always demonstrated high integrity, and you could always count on his help and full attention to you as required. He was warm and sweet with people, his steady non confrontational demeanor made him a good trusted friend to many. He was funny and loved to tell cheesy old jokes especially ones that had a message or a lessen to tell. He always enjoyed the company of his friends and family at all of our get-togethers.
My dad especially loved to spend time with his four grand children, Michael, Nicholas, Karolina and Dominic. He always made sure that the grandchildren would have a computer or two available when visiting and ensured that they were constantly filled with the new knowledge he had acquired. He loved having them at his Oshawa home or visiting with them on Kawagama Lake Ontario and Lake Lanier Georgia. He enjoyed spending time with them on the water, having interesting conversations, guiding them in their life choices, and of course being behind a camera at all times taking lots of photos and home movies.
With that and so many more memories, which all of you here also have, let's never forget Maksymilian Skupien. He was a model husband to Stefania, a devoted father to Mark and I, a loving grandfather, and a dear friend to many of you gathered here today. Thank you for supporting us dad, guiding our life and teaching us everything you had, you were my best friend growing up and I hope to always have the passion and dedication that you have. I Love you dad, I am so glad your resilience kept you with me and all of us for so long but I wish you were still with us.
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Ark Skupien lit a candle
Monday, February 6, 2017
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Thanks for everything Dad. Miss you terribly.
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The family of Maksymilian Skupien uploaded a photo
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
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