Michael Wrotniak, shown with his wife, Carol, died April 13...

Michael Wrotniak, shown with his wife, Carol, died April 13 from complications of the coronavirus, his family said.   Credit: Courtesy Wrotniak family

Michael Wrotniak Jr. left Depression-era Niagara Falls for an education at Georgetown University, gathered intelligence for the U.S. Army in Germany during the Korean War and opened carbon manufacturing plants in India in the late 1950s.

He mined his experiences from manufacturing, religious scholarship and intelligence missions for stories he told his children and grandchildren.

Wrotniak, 92 of Glen Cove, the father of Rep. Tom Suozzi's wife, Helene, died early Monday from complications of the coronavirus at Glen Cove Hospital, less than two days after testing positive.

"He became a man of the world," said his son, Michael Wrotniak, 53, of Mount Vernon, New York.

"He had a savoir faire about him and the way he could present and tell stories, about his life and how big world events impacted his life," said Wrotniak, chief executive officer of Aminco Resources, which sells raw materials including carbon.

Michael A. Wrotniak Jr. was born in 1928, the youngest of seven children. He bused tables at his family's restaurant, sometimes dropping spaghetti on unruly patrons "by accident," as family lore went. 

Wrotniak earned a bachelor's degree from Jesuit-run Georgetown's School of Foreign Service in 1948, and received a master's degree from Georgetown in 1950.

During the Korean War, Wrotniak served in the Army's counterintelligence corps in Germany, his son said.

He returned to Niagara Falls and began work at Great Lakes Carbon Corp., later moving to the company's headquarters in New York City. Wrotniak spent his entire career with Great Lakes, from 1952 to 1985, rising from inside salesman to senior vice president.

He met his future wife, Carol Wrubleski Wrotniak, at a social gathering put on by the Kosciuszko Foundation, a Polish American cultural center in Manhattan.

The couple moved to Glen Cove and bought a house on Bittersweet Lane.

But "no matter where in the world we were," Wrotniak brought the family to church every week, his son said. They attended Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Farm Street Church in Mayfair, London, and in Poland, among other places.

On Sunday, Wrotniak watched Easter Mass on television. In the afternoon, the priest from his local parish, Father Elias Carr, arrived in a mask, gloves, and gown, and administered the last rites. Wrotniak told Carr he was in a "state of grace," his son said.

Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), said Wrotniak "played many roles as a father, a husband, and a successful businessman. But the role he excelled at most, and I think loved the most, was that of grandfather."

Wrotniak is survived by his wife and daughter, both of Glen Cove; six grandchildren; a sister-in-law, Irene Wrubleski; and a daughter-in-law, Tricia Wrotniak. The family will hold a private internment Thursday, and when conditions permit a funeral Mass will be held at St. Patrick's Church in Glen Cove.

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