Brian Michael BLAZEK

27 MAR 1969 - 16 OCT 2017

• BIRTH: 27 MAR 1969, South Bend, IN
• DEATH: 16 OCT 2017, Angeles, Santo Rosario District, Philippines

INDEX

[N17908] Brian Michael Blazek
March 27, 1969 - Oct. 16, 2017
SOUTH BEND - Brian Michael Blazek, 48, died Monday, October 16, 2017, in the city of Angeles, in the Philippines. He is survived by his wife, Eva Blazek, and children, Shaira and Renz of the Philippines. He is also survived by his parents, Jo Ann M. Blazek and Joseph L. Blazek of Cassopolis, Michigan, as well as his younger sister, Krista Blazek Hogarth, her husband, Kyle Hogarth, nephews, Conor and Aidan Hogarth, and niece, Kiera Hogarth, all of Chicago. Born and raised in South Bend, Brian, when only three years old, demonstrated both the fearless courage and the precocious thinking that defined his adolescent and adult life. Fidgeting with the door handle in his second-floor bedroom, Brian ended up locking himself in his room. Eager to escape his imprisonment (it was dinner time and his mother was at home), Brian looked out his window at the snow-covered roof. It was January and the roof and the ground were covered with snow. He remembered that Santa Claus had just walked on the roof a few weeks earlier. Three-year-old Brian opened and climbed out his bedroom window to the snow-covered roof. He immediately slid down and off the roof onto the snow-covered sidewalk below. He picked himself up, walked to the front door and rang the bell for his mother who was preparing dinner. When she opened the door, he collapsed into her arms with a concussion. His fearlessness, stubbornness, problem solving, and fascination with flight was established from that day forward. Brian and his sister spent their summers in a big group of children who became teenagers and then became college kids and then became young adults on Diamond Lake in Cassopolis, Michigan. It was a sprawling neighborhood of water and boats and freedom; they both soaked it all up. As an adult, Brian still returned to Diamond Lake to visit family and friends, and it remained a very special place to him. Brian graduated from St. Joseph High School in South Bend in 1987. After that he graduated from Holy Cross College and Southwestern Michigan College, with honors. It was at Southwestern that Brian found himself and discovered his interest in aviation maintenance that led him to a degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. After graduation from Embry-Riddle, his education made work available to him in capitals all over the world, and he went with confidence. He worked for Alpha Aviation Group, a London-based company with offices in the Philippines. He was the Director of Aircraft Maintenance and championed safety for his aircrafts and student pilots. He had just completed a company-wide campaign to install airbags in the student planes, and was proud that despite many crashes, they had never lost a student pilot while he was in charge of the aircrafts. He met Eva, his beloved wife, while he was living in Dubai, and loved and cared for her children, Shaira, 20, and Renz, 17, as his own. Later Brian and Eva moved to the Philippines, Eva's family's native country, where he embraced and helped her extended family. Jo Ann and Joe had a two-week vacation in the Philippines just a few weeks before Brian died. They both remember his happiness and enthusiasm during that visit. He was happy with Eva and their children and their life in the Philippines; he so enjoyed having a long visit from his parents so he could share the richness of his life with them. He was blessed to be loved by families on two continents. In lieu of flowers, the family ask that contributions be made to the Brian Michael Blazek Scholarship at Southwestern Michigan College (Southwestern Michigan College Foundation, 58900 Cherry Grove Road, Dowagiac, MI 49047, 269.782.1301. Checks should be made payable to: SMC Foundation Memo line: Brian Michael Blazek Scholarship Fund). There will be a Celebration of Life service to remember Brian in Summer of 2018 at Camp Eberhart, Three Rivers, Michigan. He will be remembered by everyone for his generosity, kindness, stubbornness, hilarious sense of humor, and his fierce loyalty. He was deeply loved and will be dearly missed. Published in South Bend Tribune on Oct. 29, 2017

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Angeles is a city in the Philippines. Dotting the Santo Rosario District are period buildings, such as the colonial Holy Rosary Church, built in the late 19th century. Housed in a restored 1920s building, the Museo Ning Angeles explores local history. City landmarks include the opulent 1890s Pamintuan Mansion and the stone Founders' Residence, built in 1824. West of the city is the active volcano Mount Pinatubo.