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The Life of William Joseph Oprysko

William, 60, of Philadelphia, PA died Monday, January 10, 2022, in Pottstown, PA. He was a printing press platemaker for over 25 years, and then worked as a rail vehicle and equipment mechanic with SEPTA. Bill enjoyed playing ice hockey, crabbing, attending airshows, making homemade pickles, and restoring cars. He also coached his daughters' softball and soccer teams. Bill was preceded in death by his father Joseph and brother David. He is survived by his daughters, Jennifer and Nina; former spouse and mother of his children, Karen; his mother Joan; siblings James, Joseph, and Patricia; his nieces Jackie and Jade, and several other nieces and nephews; and his significant other Julie Seiders. Visitation will be held on Friday, January 14th at 11:00 a.m., with funeral services at 12 noon at West Laurel Hill Funeral Home, 225 Belmont Ave., Bala Cynwyd, PA. Interment immediately following the service at West Laurel Hill Cemetery.

 

Topic: William Joseph Oprysko Funeral

Time: Jan 14, 2022 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

 

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Filter William Joseph Oprysko's Timeline by the following Memory Categories

2015.07.13
Bill Taught Me How to go Crabbing

I was staying with the Opryskos one summer at their beach house when I was the first "kid" to wake up early one morning. Bill was 100% dressed and ready to go crabbing, but everyone else was snoozing. He was looking for a crabbing buddy so I accompanied him even though I had no idea what to do. He was patient and took the time to show me how to catch my first crab. He was so chill while we hung out on the bridge over the water shootin' the breeze and trying to catch our breakfast. I never had 1:1 time with him before and was so pleasantly surprised at how easy he was to talk to. That day I learned how much better crabs taste when you've caught them yourself among good company. 

Posted by Katrina P on 01/13/2022

2022.01.12
So many cherished memories

Bill was one of the most considerate, kind souls our family had the opportunity to experience.

Our most sincerest condolances go out to his entire family for such a tragic loss.  Heaven has gained a beautiful angel, who will surely be missed by all he touched.

 

Our hearts are broken because this was a man taken way too soon from this earth.

 

Love you Bill always,

 

Mary, Dan, Sara and Mia

 

 

Posted by Mary B on 01/12/2022

2022.01.12
Crest Movie Theater

What I will remember about you Bill is that when I wasn't always the coolest kid around and was looked at as a bit of a cast out, you made me feel welcome. From working with you at the Creat to being invited to your house to watch the Flyers. Your heart was always bigger than life. I thank you for giving me the chance to feel "cool." I know you and Dave are looking over your families so fondly seeing the wonderful job you both have done. I know our Savior has taken you guys in his arms as well as your families still here. Although I haven't spoken to you in many years, my heart breaks and yet is happy you no longer are suffering. God Bless my friend.

Posted by Ed S on 01/12/2022

2022.01.13
Uncle Jerry's Voltswagon Bug

Funny story:
 It was the early 1970's, Billy and David were washing uncle Jerry's VW Bug. He starts hearing them giggling and laughing and then making a lot of splashing noise. Jerry looks out the window to see that they had shoved the water hose all the way in the exhaust pipe and water was shooting back out. That was the last time he let them wash his car.  

Posted by James O on 01/13/2022

2022.01.13
Cherished memories

I have had many great memories at the Oprysko house. I learned how to shoot pool with Bill and Dave in the basement, we worked on cars together, all of us working at the Crest movie's. Bill was always the level-headed one smiling, trying to keep us all out of trouble. We just reconnected after 30 years with the loss of Dave. We were supposed to get together and meet to catch up but I never thought we wouldn't get the opportunity to do that. So sad that life is so short and we always think we have enough time to get together, then you get the news that they are gone. Thank you for all the wonderful memories! We'll have that reunion in the sky old friend. Until then, keep watching over us all, like you always did. Your pal, Craig 

Posted by Craig Y on 01/13/2022

2022.01.14
Public Album

2022.01.14
FRONT STREET family

My mother, Jean Krebs, and I have such wonderful memories of Bill.  The beginning memories of Bill may just be from around 40 years ago, but we can certainly clearly remember his kindness, coolness, handsomeness and overall wonderfulness as if it were yesterday.  Although we were shocked (and still are) to learn of his passing, we know that he will have a great spot from above to meet up with those who held the gates open for him, and that he will remain in the hearts of every one of us on earth who were lucky to know him...     Jean Krebs and Michelle Racca

Posted by Michelle r on 01/14/2022

2022.01.14
Growing up with the Oprysko's

Some of my fondest memories of growing up in Philadelphia were with the Oprysko’s. Bill was always so loving and full of happiness. All the soccer games where he cheered us on, pool parties, Friday night Pizza hangouts, “Ernest Scared Stupid” on repeat every halloween, dressing up with us on Halloween,  Boat rides at Lake Wallenpaupack, and hiking in the Poconos…so many incredible memories.

Bill will always be remembered as an incredible human, amazing Dad, & loving cousin.

Love you all! Sara

Posted by Sara K on 01/14/2022

2022.01.16
Reflections

This morning I found this message that my dad wrote and sent to me after his brother David Oprysko passed away. I wanted to share it with you all now.

 

"I believe that heaven is real.

There is a word for it. 

That alone makes it worth pursuing.

I’d like to think it’s the favorite parts of your life. Something utterly familiar and comfortable. 

You can relive them as you wish, or see someone you miss in an instant.

 

First thing I remember about us is upstairs in the first house. 

We are both little. I’m maybe 3 and our parents are out at the curb. We are watching._Theyre Looking at a car, David is crying and I’m trying to stop him. 

I said something that made no sense at the time. I told him if I break off the teeth of the comb I was holding, they would come back in. 

It’s no wonder that our favorite holidays as a child.. and the child that remains in us. 

 Christmas and Easter. 

One is a celebration of the birth of a innocent. A New life that was brought forth to save us all.

The other is of renewal.

Renewal of a life and of our souls.

Childhood is better.

Period.

That’s why we hold on to it so hard.

Simple.

Black 

White

Right 

Wrong

our worlds are smaller.

 

Before things can get shitty. 

Before we have to make hard choices.

Before people’s hearts harden from repeated blows.

 

One of the last things he talked about was Taiwan.

We were fearless 

Things there were wild, undeveloped.

Our time there was larger than life.

We caught every kind of animal, bugs, climbed a mountain. 

Yep, 10 and 11 year old kids climbing a mountain by ourselves.

Using toeholds cut into the limestone.

Went to the top and carved our names into it. 

Found open coffins in a washed out graveyard 

Played baseball, army, threw rocks, swam, walked every wall in the neighborhood.

Slingshots, rode bikes, fished. 

Blew up stuff with fireworks.

Listening to pirated albums in our rooms. 

Made numbchucks

We did things there that would land us in jail here. 

That’s one of the places that hangs in time for us.

One to visit, to re-live

When I leave this earth, as everyone must, I hope that he’s waiting for me."

-Bill Oprysko

Posted by Jennifer O on 01/16/2022

2022.01.16
My early, and quick memories of Bill. More to share.

 


So.
I lost my longest, best friend this week to covid.
Bill was one of the most important people in my life – for the longest @me. He was closer to me than my own
brother and I would have done anything for him when he asked. I love his children. I love his family. I always
will.


I met Bill late in Jr. High School. We had several classes together and became quick friends. I think that we
first sat next to each other in Spanish class. Bill had recently suffered a broken arm and had it fixed in a crazy
cast that that kept it stuck out straight from his shoulder. We would sit in class together and share friendly
jokes about it and always had a he-man back-up story that we hoped could be used to introduce us to girls.
That last part never panned out.


Bill was one of the coolest dorks I ever knew – takes one to know one. Bill’s family had recently returned to
the States from Taiwan where his father had worked. Bill taught me dozens of Taiwanese curse words (I s@ll
remember a few) and shared stories of pranks pulled on the Poo-Poo man. Many of these pranks involved his
dog, I think her name was Honey, and she was very protec@ve of Bill and his siblings. I thought that was
preOy cool and a liOle in@mida@ng at the same @me. I think I did get to meet Honey (or the next family dog)
and she kindly took me into her brood too. I owe this to the amount of @me I spent with Bill and at Bill’s
family’s house.


I knew Bill was a true and best friend when we started going to the same Jr. high, then high school. Bill lived
at the farthest border of the school’s boundary. I would wait for him on Rising Sun Avenue and see him
walking along the “Ave” toward me. By the @me he reached me, Bill had already walked a mile – with
another mile and a half to go. Neither of us took the bus except on days when the weather was absolutely
the worst. I think between us we had one packet of bus tokens and on those early mornings when it was
freezing rain – the SEPTA driver wouldn’t take our tokens and would just wave us to the back of the bus. He
saw us every morning and we saw him. For weeks on end at the start of school we’d see the bus slow and
just wave him on, deciding to take the long walk and laugh and joke together along the way. I think that even
then we knew that good @mes were precious enough to have so there was no need to take the bus and
shorten this opportunity. Soon enough we were joined by another classmate and our walks to school, along a
different path, were con@nued with just as many laughs and good @mes.


It was along these walks to school that I quickly learned that Bill had the longest fuse imaginable. Maybe it
was his experience being the oldest of five brothers and sisters, maybe it was being an American kid in
Taiwan... I don’t know, but Bill could withstand both insult and injury and bounce back with a smile in a
second. Even back then I could see that Bill had one of the most kind and generous hearts any person could
have – and way earlier than anybody else I ever knew.


When Bill and I were in high school, I was going through some tough @mes at home. My father was dying of
cancer and my mother had turned to a ridged form of chris@an fundamentalism where I was barred from
seeing him because my faith “wasn’t strong enough.” Bill was close enough, and insighWul enough, to see this
whole thing take form, and one day, when we were hanging out at his family home he just said that I should
sleep at his house for a while. He got an old army cot from somewhere and set it up in his room. I brought
my sleeping bag and pillow and spent most nights there that year, with my brother, Bill. There’s no telling
what or where I would be today without Bill’s kindness.

My early, and quick memories of Bill. More to share.
While I was living with Bill’s family, he and I had developed a bit of a game, a peculiar tradi@on we called the
“Pizza Chase.” About a block from Bill’s house was a small pizzeria named Pippo’s. Early on, and once each
week we would each buy a Pippo’s pizza and take it back to his room where we would listen to one of the
new LP albums one of us had purchased. Foreigner, REO Speed Wagon, Fleetwood Mac, Boomtown Rats...
between us we had a preOy large and broad collec@on. A[er a few weeks we found that Bills younger
siblings all liked pizza (like sharks like dead fish) and would quickly swoop in just as we sat and opened the
boxes. We had to do something to fix this because we found ourselves buying two pizzas and only ge\ng
one or two slices out of the deal. This is when Bill designed the Pizza Chase. I think he got the idea from the
old movie Smokey and the Bandit.


The idea was that we would take turns carrying both pizzas. The one without the pizzas - the “blocker” -
would enter the house first and locate the younger kids. This would determine which door the pizzas would
enter – the front or the back. Once decided, the pizza carrier would enter and make a quick @me walk to the
stairway leading to Bill’s third-floor bedroom. The pizza carrier, once hi\ng the stairs, would race to the top
wile the blocker would slow down the younger kids who had quickly turned into screaming pizza zombies on
chase. This usually worked well allowing the carrier to gain safe entry to Bill’s room, then quickly followed by
the blocker who could take mul@ple stairs at a @me, outpace the kids, and close the bolt on Bill’s bedroom
door. As I said, this worked well early on, but Bill’s younger brother Jimmy soon figured out when the pizza
run was going to take place and he would hang out in David’s room that shared the third floor behind the
bolted door. Both Jimmy and David were cool about things though and never took more than a customary
slice or two. It was PaOy and Joey who, being the youngest, seemed to be able to eat more than Bill and I put
together, who were the real threat. Next @me you see me, feel free to ask me about the @me we had pizza
without the toppings!


Right around the @me we graduated high school, Bill and I both lost our fathers. I hope that I was as good a
friend to Bill as he was to me.


As young men we went off to chase what we needed to chase. Bill went off to college and just about when
he returned I went off to the Army. Although we spent far less @me together it just never seemed to make a
difference. When we did get together again it seemed like no @me had ever passed. Bill invited me to his
home to hold both of his babies when they came home from their births. I helped Bill wallpaper the baby’s
room and we hung the final and shortest piece, mostly hidden behind the radiator, upside down. We cracked
open a couple of beers to celebrate and called Karen in to join in our celebra@on. Karen no@ced even before
she entered the room – Ugh! We quickly peeled off the paper and fixed the job. Then laughed about our
mutual cra[smanship for the next dozen years. Through the best of @mes and the worst of @mes – I could
count on Bill and I hope he knew he could count on me.


I know for a fact that most friendships formed in childhood never make any appearance in adulthood - but a
such a friendship with Bill could never seem to be broken. We’d become immersed in the necessi@es of our
lives and @me would pass between us. Then, out of the blue, one of us would reach out to the other and it
would be as though no @me had passed at all. That is the mark of a true friend.


They say you can’t pick your family but you can pick your friends. I am one lucky son of a bitch. I was able to
pick Bill, and he was, and always will be, both friend and family to me.

 

 

Wayne K

Posted by James O on 01/16/2022