Nicolas Martschenko

Nicolas Martschenko, 89, of Cary, NC, passed away on Thursday, June 11, 2026, at Hillcrest Convalescent Care Center in Durham, NC, after loved ones gathered to honor him and express their love and gratitude for a life spent in devotion to his family.

Nicolas was born August 25, 1936, to Gabriel and Elizabeth (née Seredinsky) Martschenko in the Cossack village of Medvedovskaya, Krasnodar Krai, USSR. Though raised under an oppressive communist Soviet regime, Nicolas remembered fondly his peaceful early years walking the family goslings along the hillsides around his home in the light of a Ukrainian sunrise, his loyal dog, Polkan, at his side. At age six, however, Nicolas and his family fled their family home during the chaos of WWII and joined forces with other Cossacks fighting against their homeland. For the next three years, the family traveled by covered wagon across war-ravaged Europe, taking part in skirmishes against the Red Army and Tito's partisans. Their travels took them to Lienz by the war’s end, where they were held in camps in the British zone. Here, Nicolas and his parents narrowly escaped the Massacre of the Cossacks at Lienz, where 20,000 of his fellow Cossacks were slaughtered after resisting forced repatriation to the USSR. Nicolas was likely one of the last surviving witnesses to this historical tragedy.

From 1945 to 1949, Nicolas and his parents, now joined by his younger brother Vladimir, lived in a displaced persons camp in Munich, Germany, where they took on new identities. Nicolas had a gift for picking up languages and often translated for others displaced by the war. It is family lore that Nicolas’ response to an American soldier earned the family their cherished ticket to America. Since they had been forced to abandon their home in 1942, their journey across Europe was filled with much peril and near-death adventures, but the family’s legendary resourcefulness allowed the four Martschenkos to arrive safely in New Orleans aboard the immigration transport ship USS Sturgis just before Christmas, 1949.

After fulfilling their one-year contract as laborers on the Holhauser Farm in Cambellton, TX, the family moved to Chicago, where Nicolas attended Lake View High School. He met Patricia Wallie Klich, a Polish girl from across town, while the two represented their respective schools at a Junior Red Cross Training Center, but Patricia told him she was too young to date. Nicolas graduated from high school the following year, 1954, and later that summer received an invitation to Patricia’s 16th birthday party.

After high school, Nicolas attended a two-year college and joined the Army immediately afterward to receive further engineering training – fulfilling a promise made to that American soldier back in Germany. In 1958, the Army transferred him to Hamburg, NY, and Patricia followed. They married in a small ceremony on September 27, 1958, at St. Peter and Paul Church in Hamburg. Seven months later, Nicolas was discharged from the Army and immediately began his lifetime career at IBM. Three months later, they began a family.

Over the coming years, they would raise a family of six children, moving from place to place under IBM’s direction, until finally settling in Cary, NC, in 1973.

As if his tumultuous youth and raising six children hadn’t already required extreme patience and perseverance, Nicolas also leaned toward hobbies and interests that required these skills. He was a master carpenter who built beautiful train sets, rocking horses, and hope chests for his grandchildren; an avid fisherman who had once caught over 200 fish in a single night; a ham radio enthusiast who had accomplished the rare feat of having spoken to a person in every country in the world; a decorated Scouter who had earned scouting’s highest honor, the Silver Beaver award; and a crafty chess player—once even besting a grand master.

Above all, Nicolas understood and believed that families were meant to stick together. In his early years, trusting his family was a matter of survival. In his later years, he took his own parents under his care and maintained the tradition of gathering with his family every holiday. Even in the last thirteen years of his life, which he spent without his beloved wife, Nicolas demonstrated his unconditional love for each family member. It is this legacy of family sacrifice and devotion for which he will be most remembered.

Nicolas was preceded in death by his parents, Gabriel and Elizabeth Martschenko; his brother Larry Martschenko, his wife, Patricia (née Klich); and two sisters-in-law, Geraldine Mae Pstrzoch, and Barbara Ann Luka. He is survived by his six children, Alice Patrica Mask (Jim), Carol Marie Wroble (Steve), Elaine Therese Hughes (Joseph), William Nicolas Martschenko (Laura), Daniel Robert Martschenko (Christy) and Gail Jean Byron (Robert); thirteen grandchildren, Sara Allyson Hughes (Joseph), Richard Justin Martschenko (Amanda), Jayme Michelle Valenti (Nick), Abbie Mae Martschenko, Joseph Bayne Hughes, Jr., Aaron Nicolas Martschenko (Amanda), Alec Daniel Martschenko (Sarah), Brian Daniel Martschenko (Savannah), Stephen Cole Wroble, Malcolm Gabriel Byron, Evan David Martschenko, Parker Alan Wroble, and Maya Kate Christensen (Noah); two great-grandchildren; a sister-in-law, Linda Martschenko (née Petrichenko); two brothers-in-law, James Pstrzoch and Jerry Luka;and many beloved nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 27 at 2:00pm at the Brown-Wynne Funeral Home in Cary where we will celebrate the sacred transition of Nicolas’ soul back into the gentle care of his loving Heavenly Father. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Wounded Warriors or the Junior Red Cross, two charities that held special meaning for Nicolas.

As fascinating as his story is, all those who loved him are proof that he lived and that his legacy continues in each of us with everlasting joy and hope for what is yet to come. It is a story that is truly just beginning.