Jim Przybyla named grand marshal
When Jim Przybyla graduated from Rogers City High School in 1964 he never dreamed he?d be asked to become the grand parade marshal for the Nautical City Festival this many years later. ?My dad (Anthony Sr.) was a parade marshal…I think it was in 1978 or 1979,? Jim recalled. Following graduation, Jim attended the University of Detroit where he received a bachelor of arts in psychology, before he went on to join the Peace Corps from 1968-1972.
Jim was stationed in Venezuela during those Peace Corps years. He returned to Rogers City in 1973 and began work with Joe Kowalski at the Kowalski Insurance Agency. Jim remembers his high school years, the four years of football he played and the JV basketball team he served as equipment manager. Jim is the son of the late Anthony Sr. and Anna (Romel) Przybyla and has siblings, Edwin, Rita, Laurie, Dennis, Julian, Anthony Jr., Annie, and Ralph (now deceased).
JIM HAS always had service to others at the top of his list that began years ago helping the basketball team, then the Peace Corps following his college years. Jim just naturally continued his volunteering in community affairs as a member of the Rogers City Hospital Board and the Nautical City Festival Committee, two of those years as chairman. He has served a number of years as a member of the Knights of Columbus, as Grand Knight, and is the District Deputy of the Youth Group. Jim was involved for some years with the K of C Snow Derby Committee, and has spent years with the community?s youth as a Little League umpire and taking stats for many high school sports teams.
Jim quietly has kept many an athlete eligible to play by personally tutoring them with their school lessons. He spent a number of years making summer trips taking three boys at a time on extended trips to Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon, Glacier National Park, and one trip all the way to California. Jim said that one of the things he enjoyed most when he took the trips with the students was when he?d see them stand on the brink of some beautiful scenery and say, ?Wow…look at that!? ?It?d make it all worthwhile to see a kid just stand there and appreciate the majesty of it all.?
DURING ALL these years, Jim never married until later in life, when he re-met a school classmate named Carol Miller in 1994. He was attending an ?afterglow? following one of the many meetings he attends, and there was Carol Miller, a girl he graduated with back in 1964. Carol was by then a widow, and the two just naturally began seeing one another, finally deciding to tie the knot in August of 1998.
Carol brought into Jim?s life a family of grown children, Todd and Kristi Wodek, who gave Carol and Jim three of their four grandchildren, Olivia, Davis, and Wren; and Kelli Wodek with daughter Brooke. Golfing, church participation, travel and photography have been some of the things Jim does to keep busy, when he?s not running around with volunteer work or to meetings between his working hours. The most challenging time he ever spent was the year before he married Carol. He was the Nautical City Festival Chairman, the Grand Knight of the K of C Council, he was helping to take care of his ill mother, and was dating Carol all at the same time.
HIS PROUDEST moment? ?I was on the Rogers City Council when we bought the Seagull Point property,? Jim said. ?I was very proud of that accomplishment…but I was on the hospital board when we had to close it, and that was tough to take.? How would Carol like to go along with all that camping and rough housing? ?I pretty much leave all that kind of stuff
They must be doing something right, even if their ideas vary on how to spend time, as their fifth wedding anniversary is coming up this year and they have planned a Hawaiian vacation. Jim, sometimes known as ?Pusch,? was asked how he got the name. He said his older sister got the nickname ?Rita Pusch? in high school and when he came along, students just began calling him ?Pusch.?
Jim thinks the name came about because of the difficulty of pronouncing and spelling his last name. Parade-goers will see Jim and Carol riding in the grand parade Sunday, August 3, waving to the crowds.