Joseph Bender

Joseph BenderJune 1, 1942 - April 14, 2017Devoted husband of Mary nee Zuziak;loving son of the late Feliksa(nee Paszt) and Jozef;dearest father of Laura (Steven) Manos, Joseph E. (Katherine), Thomas (Kathleen), and James;doting grandfather of Nicholas, Peter, Steven, Ryan, and Shannon.beloved brother of the late Jan and brother-in-law of Theresa Zuziak;Joseph Bender (74) passed away on April 14, 2017 after a five-month struggle to recover from heart surgery. He was born in Szczebrzeszyn Poland on June 1, 1942 and came to the U.S. with his parents and brother in March 1949. He lived in Washington, North Carolina and Chelsea, Massachusetts before his family settled in Chicago. He graduated from Tuley High School in 1960 and worked his way through Northwestern University, graduating in 1972. He worked as an accountant for the rest of his life, becoming a CPA in 1980. He supported each of his four children through twelve years of Catholic education. He married the love of his life, Mary Zuziak, in 1964, and embarked on a wonderful marriage that lasted 53 years. They lived in an apartment in Logan Square for three years before buying the house they lived in until his death. Joe and Mary had four children, Laura, Joe, Tom, and Jim. Joe was very involved with his children, playing with them after work, taking them on bike rides, playing running bases, and participating in Boy Scouts. He was a lifelong do-it-yourselfer, carpenter, and photographer. He was a proud mentor for his grandsons’ Eagle Scout projects. Joe and Mary enjoyed traveling through Europe, Canada, and many of the fifty states. Joe continued his involvement with his family with the arrival of his five grandchildren, Nick, Pete, Steve, Ryan, and Shannon. Joe went to hundreds of their soccer games, concerts, hockey games, parades, volleyball games, Boy Scout events, and baseball games, confirmations, communions, birthdays, graduations, baptisms - and took pictures at them all. Literally. Visitation Wednesday April 19 from 3 to 9:00 p.m. at Cumberland Chapels, 8300 W. Lawrence Ave., Norridge. Funeral Thursday 9:30 a.m. from the funeral home and then will proceed to St. Francis Borgia Church for Mass at 10:30 a.m. Interment Private at St. Adalbert Cemetery.