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Michael Warchola
Michael Warchola of Southampton died at Southampton Hospital on February 4. He was 94.
Born on November 16, 1918 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, he spent 10 years at sea before and during World War II. He started his military service distributing coal on the Great Lakes and by the end of the war, he was a first assistant engineer.
Mr. Warchola sailed the seven seas and saw many things, survivors said, from shrunken heads on the Amazon River to the scuttling of the German battleship Graf Spee in the Rio Plata in Uruguay.
He was predeceased by his wife, Norah, whom he met while she served in the Womens Royal English Navy plotting convoys in Greenoch, Scotland. They married in 1943 and had a short honeymoon in London. They spent part of that short stay in the Underground ducking V-1 buzz bombs.
He was also predeceased by son, Michael, a lieutenant with Fire Department of New York Ladder Company No. 5, who was killed on September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center.
He is survived by a son, Denis, a retired captain for the Fire department of New York; and five grandchildren.
A funeral service was held on Friday, February 8, at the J.M. O’Connell Funeral Home in Southampton.
on Feb 7, 2013