CARL STRAVINSKI

Carl Stravinski, 89, of State College, passed away Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008, in State College.

He was a one-time Penn State football player and became one of the team's biggest fans. He was born Oct. 28, 1918, in Plymouth, a son of the late August and Helen (Wasilewski), and married Veronica "Roni" Krivitski in Wilkes-Barre on April 19, 1947. It was football that led Carl to Penn State in 1936, and he was a three-year starter at tackle and place-kicker for Coach Bob Higgins. Known as "Stravo" to his teammates, Carl was part of the line known as the "Seven Mountains" that helped the 1940 team to Penn State's best record in 19 years at 6-1.

Shortly after graduating from Penn State in 1941 with a degree in forestry, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Throughout World War II, Carl was part of the 2775 Engineer Base Photomapping Company that mapped plans for the invasion of Europe in 1944. While in training at Fort Belvoir, Va., Carl was selected to play football for an All-Star Army team that played five games against National Football League teams for the benefit of the Army Emergency Relief Fund. Before his discharge in 1945, Carl also coached and played on a special inter-army football team in Paris known as the Mighty Mites.

Upon returning home, he played two years in the semi-pro American Professional Football League for the Scranton Miners and Wilkes-Barre Barons. Around 1947/48, Carl joined the forestry division of the State of Maryland and for the next three decades would work as a forester in the parks and city governments in Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Dayton, Ohio.

Carl was a gregarious, outgoing man who made friends easily and an outdoorsman who loved to spend his free time at home working on his yard. But no matter where he lived, he and his wife, Roni, would travel to Penn State football games, home and away, including bowl games, and he was a longtime member of the Nittany Lion Club, the Penn State Lettermen's Club and the Penn State Alumni Association.

While in Dayton, Carl started a chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association and the chapter later endowed a scholarship in his honor.

When he retired, Carl and his wife moved to Boalsburg to be near his beloved Penn State and its football team.

In addition to his wife, Carl is survived by a sister, Clara Zawadski, of Shiremanstown; a brother-in-law, Victor Krivitski, of Rahway, N.J.; and several nieces and nephews. Friends will be received from 6 to 8 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 17, 2008, at Koch Funeral Home, 2401 S. Atherton St., State College. A funeral mass will be held at 10:30 a.m., Monday, Aug. 18, 2008, at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church, 820 Westerly Parkway, State College, with the Rev. Monsignor David A. Lockhard officiating. Burial will follow at 4 p.m. Monday at the Lithuanian Independent Cemetery in West Wyoming.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations to either the Carl Stravinski Endowed Scholarship Fund of the Penn State Club of Dayton, Ohio, c/o Penn State University, Office of Planned Giving and Endowments, 7 Old Main, University Park, PA 16802; or Our Lady of Victory Church, 820 Westerly Parkway, State College, PA 16801.