Victor Sokolowsky

Victor Sokolowsky, faithful husband and father, returned to meet his Heavenly Father on Thursday, February 18, 2016; two months shy from what would have been his 98th birthday. Victor was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on April 19, 1918, the fifth of six children born to Catherine Elisabeth and Alexander Sokolowsky. Victor’s father immigrated from Russia in 1910 and eventually settled in Milwaukee. As was typical with many families who immigrated to America, Alexander came over first, leaving his wife and children to the care of family and friends; and with the help of relatives already living in America he obtained employment and a place to live in Milwaukee. A year later, Victor’s mother immigrated with her brother and her two living children in 1911. Although Victor’s parents came from Russia, their culture and language were German.

Victor’s mother named him Reinhold Victor Sokolowsky, but the midwife who delivered Victor either didn’t understand Catherine’s pronunciation or didn’t know how to spell “Reinhold” and only wrote “Victor Sokolowsky” on his birth certificate. However, he was always known as Reinhold (or “Reini”) to everyone who knew him in Milwaukee; but to everyone west of the Mississippi River he was known as Victor. He offered to pay $1000 to any descendent who named their child “Reinhold.” (Ralph’s son, Eric, came the closest in naming their oldest son Ryan Holt Sokolowsky).

Victor never knew his sister Paulina, who died in Russia at the age of 9 months (1906). When Victor was 8 months old, his sister Bertha died at age 11 of the flu epidemic (1919). When Victor was 4 years old, his youngest sister Lydia died at age 3 having fallen into scalding water (1923). When Victor was 22, his father died of heart failure at age 57 (1941). When Victor was 29, his sister Viola died at age 30 in a train accident (1947) and when Victor was 30 his brother Alexander died from tuberculosis at age 40 (1949). This left only Victor and his mother.

His parents were converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having joined the Church in Milwaukee in 1915. Victor was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1928 at the age of 10. Two years later, while sitting in church on the stand with the twelve-year old deacons, a family with five girls just recently arrived from Germany walked in. Victor poked the deacon sitting next to him and said, “Look at those greenhorns just off the boat.” The oldest girl was 8 year old Elizabeth Jueschke.

At the beginning of 1942 when men were being drafted, Victor was granted a deferment for being the sole support for his mother. He traveled out to Bremerton, Washington to visit his friend Norwin Berg. When Victor arrived in Bremerton in June 1942, he had run out of money and had 50 cents in his pocket. His friend told him he could get work at the Bremerton Naval Shipyard. He eventually got on with the shipyard’s fire department. As the war progressed, Victor’s deferment as sole support for his mother ended; however, working in the fire department was deemed “essential to national security.” His deferment from being drafted continued and Victor began his 31-year career as a fireman. His career was interrupted in 1945 when at the age of 27 Victor decided it would be to his advantage to serve in the military in order to have preference in the fire department afterwards. Rather than be drafted into the Army, he enlisted in the Navy. World War II ended shortly after his joining the Navy and he was honorably discharged on July 1, 1946 while stationed at the Naval Shipyard in Pensacola, Florida.

He stopped in Milwaukee on his way back to Bremerton, and met with an old acquaintance—Elizabeth Jueschke, which was a turning point in his life. Not only did their relationship blossom, it also prompted Victor to become completely converted to the gospel. Once back in Bremerton, he became a faithful and active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was ordained an Elder. Victor and Elizabeth Jueschke were married in the Salt Lake Temple on June 6, 1947. Their seven children were born between 1948 and 1956.

Victor’s mother lived with him and Elizabeth and their children from 1954 to 1957, and then his mother lived the last year of her life in a nursing home. Catherine Sokolowsky died on December 13, 1958. She was 71. Victor has outlived a great number of people and in his later years, whenever he attended a funeral, he often complained that the deceased had “cut in line ahead of him.”

It was while he worked in the shipyard as a fireman that Victor mastered the art of making pies, especially blackberry and rhubarb pies. Everyone loved his pies. He was also a master in crocheting afghans.

Victor filled his life with service to his Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, to his wife and his children, to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and to his fellowman. Victor was not one to ask you if you needed help; he just knew what was needed to be done and did it. He served as a counselor to two bishops, Don Fry and Doug Beagley. After his retirement he and Elizabeth first served a two-year mission (1982-1983) as full-time ordinance workers in the Seattle Temple. They next served in the Germany Frankfurt Mission as proselyting and reactivation missionaries (1984-1985), laboring in the Siegen Branch for 16 months. Then they had the privilege of serving a third mission in the Frankfurt Temple (1987-1988), for which Victor was set apart as a sealer by Gordon B. Hinckley; and continued to perform that calling until 2011. This has been a great blessing to the Sokolowsky family in that Victor has had the opportunity to seal several of his grandchildren in a number of temples. Victor loved working in the temple.

Victor is survived by: his wife of 68½ years, Elizabeth; six of his seven children, Ralph (Virginia) Sokolowsky, Orem, Utah; M. Jay (Susan) Skyler, Anthem, Arizona; Ellen (Chuck) Gallagher, Anthem, Arizona; Brian (April) Sokolowsky, Vancouver, Washington; Virginia (Pete) Toolson, Kennewick, Washington; and Mary Ann (Russ) Van Wagenen, Seattle, Washington; 24 grandchildren, 42 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-greatgrandchild. He was preceded in death by his son David.