Gary R Podhajsky

Gary was born June 11, 1939 in the farming community of Traer, Iowa. When he was 13 years old, he contracted polio. And while that was certainly a life-altering event, Gary chose to move forward from it and not have his life be defined by the disease. He was married to Phyllis Hlas on September 9th, 1961 and graduated from Upper Iowa University in 1962 with a degree in Engineering. Just after graduation he and his new family moved to Colorado, leaving family and friends, to work on the Atlas Rocket project team at The Martin Company. After a short time, Gary landed a position at IBM in Boulder, CO where he spent the majority of his professional career. A highlight of his career at IBM was working on the team that developed IBM’s first word processor/laser printer, “the IBM 6670”. After several corporate mergers, acquisitions and dispositions, Gary ended up back at Lockheed Martin, where he started his career in 1962. He retired in 1991, after a successful 27-year career.

In 1968, Gary gave his heart to Jesus and after that time he was not shy about sharing his faith with others. He was often found researching and studying God’s Word, and holding Bible studies in his home. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Gary was active in the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International.

More than anything else, Gary enjoyed time with his family. He was always full of wonder and excitement at God’s creation and passed the same along to his children. The whole family would often go on weekend getaways to camp and fish in the mountains of Colorado and every summer the family would take road trips to explore the Western United States. Gary also enjoyed his hobbies that included woodturning, bird watching, and photography. You could often find him crawdad fishing at the local park with his grandchildren.

Gary is survived by Phyllis, his wife of 55 years, and his six children: Brian Podhajsky of Longmont, CO; Lori (John) Bixler of Arapahoe County, CO; Denise (Mike) Dean of Lake Oswego, OR; Brad (Becky) Podhajsky of Parker, CO; Paula (Brent) White of Loveland, CO; Trina (Jay) Stocker of Windsor, CO; and Margie Podhajsky (Daughter in law) of Thornton, CO. Gary is survived by eighteen grandchildren: Brooke, Katy, Audrey, Lisa (Alec), Mollie, Kellie, Lyndsay (Spencer), Tyler, Cameron, Austin, Grant, Lauren, Casey, Jeremy, Jamie, Amarie, Camden and Brenaya. Gary is also survived by his brother Mark (Linda) Podhajsky, brother Darrell (Linda) Podhajsky, and his sister Jolene (Pete) Sell.

Cremation has been entrusted to Howe Mortuary and Cremation Services.

A Celebration of Life will be held at 1:00 pm on Friday, April 8, 2016 at the Howe Mortuary Chapel in Longmont. A reception will immediately follow the services in the Event Room at the Howe Mortuary.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Gary R. Podhajsky Memorial Fund and sent to Howe Mortuary, Inc. 439 Coffman St. Longmont, CO. 80501