Stanley J. Ogar, 95, a resident of Brookfield since 1979, died Dec. 22, 2013.
Mr. Ogar was born March 23, 1918 in what is now known as the South Loop neighborhood of Chicago at about 14th Street and Prairie Avenue. He was orphaned as a child; his mother died when he was 8 and his father died when he was 9.
He grew up in Chicago and began a career in the manufacturing industry. By the late 1930s he was working at the Central Screw Company, where he met Josephine L. Venezio, whom he would marry six months later, in 1943.
According to his daughter, Kathy Jo Ogar, Mr. Ogar was a dedicated family man who possessed an even temper and took life’s challenges in stride.
“He was good to his family, a very lovable, adorable man,” Kathy said.
The Ogar family for many years lived in Chicago and Mr. Ogar owned two hardware stores there, beginning in 1958. In 1976, he bought the True Value hardware store on Broadway Avenue in Brookfield and moved his family to the village in 1979.
From that time onward, Mr. Ogar was a fixture at the store. Despite suffering a stroke in 1983, he worked actively until about 2004, according to Kathy Ogar. After that, he remained a familiar face around the shop until a month before his death.
Mr. Ogar was the husband of the late Josephine L. Ogar (nee Venezio); the father of Albert R. Ogar, Stanley J. (Jenny) Ogar Jr. and Kathy Jo Ogar; the grandfather of four; the great-grandfather of six; and the brother of the late Albert Ogar, Frank Ogar, John Smith and Rose Smith.
A funeral Mass was celebrated Dec. 27 at St. Barbara Church, Brookfield, followed by interment at Resurrection Cemetery, Justice.
Hitzeman Funeral Home, Brookfield, handled arrangements.
