Joseph Walter Slowik's Obituary
Joseph Slowik Obituary
Joseph Walter Slowik died January 27, 2017 at his home after a long illness. Born February 7, 1927, he graduated from Argo Community High School and served in the U.S. Army in Korea, then enrolled at the Goodman School of Drama of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he earned BFA and MFA degrees. He married Patricia Kaktis in 1949. They lived for fifty-two years in Elmhurst before moving to Oberlin in 2010, having spent the first twenty summers of their marriage at the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan. Slowik taught Acting and Directing at the Goodman School of Drama and The Theatre School at DePaul University from 1951 until 2007. During that time he directed over one hundred plays, both at the School and on professional stages in Chicago and around the world He studied with Jerzy Grotowski at the Polish Laboratory Theater in Wroclaw in 1968-69, returning to the United States to spread Grotowski’s techniques through numerous seminars and workshops. He was given DePaul University’s Via Sapientiae Award, its highest faculty honor, in 1997. Slowik occasionally acted in commercials, and appeared as the piano tuner in Sylwester Checinski’s 1977 comic film Kochaj albo rzuc (“Love It or Leave It”). A devotee of classical music, Slowik was also, from boyhood, an enthusiastic fan of the Chicago White Sox, and later managed the baseball team The Polish Pals. Slowik is survived by his wife of sixty-eight years Patricia; their sons Kenneth and Peter; daughters-in-law Theresa and Victoria; grandchildren Catherine, Christopher, Jonathan, Benjamin, and Timothy; and great-grandchildren Kari, Scarlett, and Nolan. In lieu of flowers, please send contributions to: the Joseph Slowik Scholarship Fund at The Theatre School at DePaul University. A memorial service will be 10 A.M. March 20, 2017 at St. Blase Church in Argo, followed by burial at Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, IL.Arrangements were in the care of Dicken Funeral Home and Cremation Service, Elyria.For online condolences, visit www.dickenfuneralhome.com
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