Paul Peter Schapka's Obituary
SCHAPKA, MR. PAUL PETER, North Muskegon. Paul, age 99, died suddenly at his home on Thursday evening, July 22, 2021, due to heart failure, without pain or suffering. He was born June 6, 1922 to immigrants Andrew Shapka (Andrei Sapca) and Margaret Marie (Kumives, translated to Mason) Schapka in Dalton Township, Muskegon County, MI.
EARLY LIFE: After his parents moved to Muskegon Heights, where his parents ran the Schapka Grocery, Paul began school at age 4. In 1939, at age 16, Paul graduated from Muskegon Heights High School with a commercial diploma. Too young to be hired, Paul returned to school and studied, all at once, 9th grade algebra, 10th grade trigonometry, 11th grade chemistry, and 12th grade physics. This prepared him for the possibility of college, although he thought he could never afford it.
EMPLOYMENT: Turning 18, Paul worked in Muskegon at Enterprise Brass, and when the USA became involved in World War II, he bored pistons for airplanes at Continental Motors. At each job, he worked so fast that the union told him to slow down. In the evenings after work, Paul studied radio and electricity through a correspondence course and played saxophone in the Jerry Dawson band, which performed at weddings and school dances. From work and band earnings, he paid cash for a house and rented it out.
MILITARY SERVICE: Paul served in the USA Army during World War II from November 13, 1942 until March 8, 1946. He received advanced mathematical and engineering training at the University of Chicago and was a senior radio mechanic technician in the U.S. Army in the Signal Corps, attached to the Air Force, in Hawaii. This small unit maintained the newly invented “blind landing” equipment used to guide pilots to the ground when clouds obscured their view of the landing spot. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Paul was waiting for orders to be sent to Japan when the atom bomb stopped the war, which probably saved his life.
EDUCATION: At home after World War II, the G. I. Bill paid Paul’s college tuition. He was graduated from Muskegon Junior College in 1948 and from the University of Michigan in 1950 with a B.S. in electrical engineering.
RELIGIOUS LIFE: While attending the university, Paul read The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton, who became a Trappist monk, the most demanding of Catholic orders. It influenced Paul to become a monk, but he finished his education first. After selling his house and giving away his belongings, in September of 1958, Paul entered the monastery of Our Lady of Mepkin Abbey along the Cooper River at Moncks Corner, South Carolina, with the intention of being a lay brother (worker, not priest). He was called Brother Paul. This cloistered life had no contact of any kind from the outside world. They lived in solitude, observed silence, and used sign language from the sixth century to communicate, except when speaking to the abbot or to prevent harm while at work. The monks ground whole wheat flour for bread, cared for 35,000 hens and their eggs, milked cows, and grew vegetables and flowers. Their diet was strict vegetarian. The daily 3:00 AM to 8:00 PM monastery routine included praying, chanting psalms, meditating, saying mass, reading manuscripts in the Scriptorium, doing penance, offering hospitality, and performing manual labor. Paul wired two miles of electric line along the property for telephone and refrigeration. Because he had a college degree, Fr. M. Paul Schapka, O.C.S.O. was ordained as a Priest on September 20, 1958 at Mepkin Abbey, and henceforth called Father Paul. The abbey needed a priest qualified to teach theology to the monks, so the abbot sent Paul to to Rome, Italy, to study. Paulus Schapka entered the Angelicum Athena (university) in Rome in 1961, where all lessons, reading, writing, speaking, and exams were in Latin. Paul and other religious students passed the Roman Coliseum daily on their bus ride to classes. They privately toured the catacombs of Rome, three levels down, where the earliest Christians held their services. On June 18, 1962, Paul received his Licentiatus, the equivalent of a master’s degree in theology. After 17 years at Mepkin Abbey, Vatican II changes occurred. Paul left the monastery in November 1967, convinced that his life work was elsewhere. He had been happy at Mepkin and said he would have done it again in a heartbeat. He was formally dispensed April 25, 1970 by Pope Paul VII, in good standing. He returned to Muskegon Heights, lived with and managed his widowed mother’s affairs, and went to work immediately.
EMPLOYMENT: A week after arriving home in November 1967, Paul was hired as a social worker for Muskegon County, MI and he retired twenty years later, in March 1988, at age sixty-five.
MARRIAGE: On June 30, 1984, seventeen years after leaving the monastery and at age sixty-two, “confirmed bachelor” Paul married Mrs. Jane Mary Appleton, a co-worker with two children, at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Muskegon, MI, where he had been baptized, now torn down. Their supervisor had succeeded in being a matchmaker! The entire office was stunned, as there had been no hint of romance and they had only two dates before becoming engaged—(1) dinner, and (2) Jane played violin in a West Michigan Symphony concert while Paul sat in the audience. After learning that marriage was possible because interfaith requirements had changed from years ago, they became engaged, completed premarital counseling, and scheduled the Catholic wedding ceremony.
HAPPY ADVENTURES: Paul enjoyed playing golf with his brother, Arnold, and Uncle Charlie Fodrocy, trying his luck with the stock market, reading French, discussing philosophy with wonderful neighbors, chatting with relatives, Marva Schapka Spencer (Terry), of Oklahoma, and Joe Fodrocy (Jean) of Muskegon, and meeting former co-workers for meals. Always the engineer, after marriage Paul insisted they move from Jane’s house to their current one, whose doors allowed prevailing southwest winds through the home. After Jane retired, they toured The Netherlands, staying with her relatives, and they spent winters in Bradenton, FL. Paul was present for the births of all five granddaughters, and he enjoyed their academic, music, and sports events and family celebrations.
LIFE MOTTO: On the day Paul died, at age 99, he watched activities on the lake, washed dishes, did a small laundry, and prepared for the next day. Jane asked Paul about his guiding life motto. He immediately replied, “Do good and avoid evil.” This derives from Saint Thomas Aquinas’s Theory of Natural Law, based on Old Testament and New Testament scriptures, summed up by Hebrews 5:14 and Romans 12:9. Then, for the first time, Paul mentioned that he had been a Boy Scout, and he quoted their attributes from memory: “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.” He died instantly that same night while preparing for bed. Paul was a humble philosopher, willing helper, loving husband, loyal friend, and a frugal yet generous master of his household. His mother-in-law described him as “spun gold,” meaning spiritual and priceless.
MEMORIAL: Due to COVID-19, the private memorial ceremony, led by his children and grandchildren, with Full Military Rites under the auspices of the VFW Muskegon County Council, Gary White, Commander, was held July 30, 2021 at Sytsema Funeral Home, Lee Chapel. His cremains will be placed in Laketon Township Cemetery, Muskegon Co., MI, and at Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, South Carolina.
IMMEDIATE SURVIVORS: Wife, Jane Mary Appleton Santiago Schapka, North Muskegon, MI; children by marriage: daughter, Zabrina C. Santiago Lindsay (Robert Lindsay), North Muskegon; son, Alexander Kenneth Santiago, Muskegon; five granddaughters: Deborah Jane Santiago Sweet (Logan Sweet), Muskegon; Anneka Collette Santiago Lindsay, Isabella Jane Santiago Lindsay, Alexandra Laura Santiago Lindsay, and Sophia Elizabeth Santiago Lindsay, all of North Muskegon; three nephews, two nieces, and cousins.
PREDECEASED BY: his father, born Andrei Sapca 1895 in Jordanestie, Bukowina, Austria-Romania; mother, Margaret Marie Kumives, born 1897 in Sopron, Hungary; brothers: Vasile “Red,” “Jeep” Schapka, Oklahoma City, OK; Philip Arnold Schapka “Arnold,” Norton Shores, MI; Robert Charles Schapka, killed during World War II; two nieces, of OK. The Schapka surname evolved: Sapca > Shapka > Schapka.
CONTRIBUTIONS may be made to Muskegon Catholic Education Foundation, 1851 Barclay St., Muskegon MI 49441; Rescue Mission, 1715 Peck St., Muskegon MI 49441; or a charity of your choice.
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