Obituary of Daniel A. Winarski

Daniel lived his life for God and family.  From his childhood in Morrisville, PA, through high school at his beloved St. Mary’s High School of Orchard Lake, MI, college at Georgetown University and a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy, he was guided by strength, bravery, intellect and love. His greatest life’s work was to instill these values in his family.

As a young officer in 1963, Dan was stationed at Port Lyautey in Morocco, where he met Monica at the officer’s club.  A registered nurse and Navy officer with the same devotion to faith and family, their joyful and sometimes raucous times at beach parties and on base strengthened into lasting love and commitment.

Married in 1965, they moved to Monterey, CA, where Dan earned his MS from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, and the first of their five children was born. The family grew rapidly in 8 years. Raising their children mostly in the Washington, D.C. area, Dan delighted in finding new and thrifty ways to entertain his brood.

Evening drives up and down hills of Maryland in the wood-paneled Ford station wagon, hunting for mythical insects on hot summer nights was a favorite family outing. Hikes in forests of Virginia became obstacle courses where he would invent “challenges” to test the kids and dogs. These often ended with muddy, wet feet, hot dogs cooked with foraged branches, and lots of screaming laughter.

As his children grew, Dan passed on what all understood to be the most crucial life skills: driving a stick shift car, changing a flat tire, checking the motor oil, mowing the lawn, and securing themselves to a chimney (with an extension cord!) to safely clean the house gutters. Years later it became clear that what he was really imparting was the fortitude, focus, and self-reliance he had and knew his children would also need. 

Dan’s work with satellite imagery in the Navy fueled his passion for photos and maps, and for exploring back roads, attempting to get lost. With an innate sense of direction, he rarely succeeded.

A nature enthusiast, avid reader, and expert list maker (with illegible handwriting), Dan adored tracking things. All manner of data from daily weather logs to major life events made it into his computer diary, logged in as few words as possible, often with cryptic abbreviations we will forever be attempting to decode. He had a terrible memory for some of the most basic details of family life, but his archives, photos and notes never failed to solve family squabbles, down to the dates of when each dog died and when each of his children started new jobs.

Dan thrived on problem-solving and would spend hours cogitating and pondering, spinning solutions in his head until he eventually landed on an angle to try. Many involved duct tape and scraps of wood. Some took mathematical calculations and permutations.  All of them were wonky but wonderfully his, reflective of a marvelous one-of-a-kind mind.

He enjoyed his retirement years, first in Allentown, PA and then in Raleigh, NC, never running out of things to do as he made his way through a perpetually long library hold list, watched untold hours of taped golf and football each weekend, continued to dispense advice to his family (there are always more lessons to be taught), and delighted in opportunities to help his grandsons learn to drive. Most of all, he remained devoted to Monica, the love of his life, as they navigated the changes of life together.

Christmas Eve dinners meant the most to Dan. Each holiday started by gathering as a family, calling to mind the story of Jesus’s birth, and sharing oplatki with each other. Dan’s Christmas speeches, both dreaded and treasured, were among the few times he relied on words to express what family and faith meant to him. The rest of the time, he did it with his love.

Son of Frank and Stella Winiarski, Daniel is survived by his wife Monica; his children Deborah Winarski of Evanston, IL; Diana Winarski (Peter Forrest) of New Haven, VT; Danielle (Neil) Williams of Raleigh, NC; Donna (Christopher) Smith of Raleigh, NC; David Winarski of Columbia, MO; grandchildren Evan, Oscar, Margaret, Simon, Daniel, Samuel, Oliver, James, and Caroline; siblings Arthur (Barbara) Winiarski, Kathy (Richard) Lanning, Ann Marie Winarski; sister-in-law Mary Winarski and many cherished nieces, nephews and cousins. He is predeceased by brother Gerald Winarski.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday, September 25, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. at St. Hedwig Church, 872 Brunswick Avenue, Trenton, NJ 08638.

Interment will follow at St. Hedwig Cemetery, Ewing Twp.

The visitation will be held on Wednesday morning from 9:30-10:30AM at Poulson & Van Hise Funeral Directors, 650 Lawrence Road, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648.