A life remembered...

(Dorothy & RJ 2005)

Dorothy Marie Burke-Kozak 1961-2007

Here is an exerpt from the newsletter of Dorothy's church, St. Paul's Roman Catholic in St. Petersburg, Florida-December 2007:

Dorothy Burke Kozak loved all things French. The language, cuisine, wine, fashion, style, decor, Paris or as it was French. She majored in French in college, and spent her junior year in France. That's what hooked her.

And that's what got her involved initially at St. Paul's, as a part-time French teacher in the parochial school, in the 1990's, when her son was a student there.

But the French connection was only part of who Dorothy was.

She was born and raised in Philadelphia, the eldest child of an Irish Catholic Philadelphia policeman and his wife. Parochial school, archdiocesan high school, and Catholic women's college reinforced the deeply Catholic home experience. Philadelphia Catholics are serious about their faith, and Dorothy was Catholic through and through.

She married not a Frenchman, but a hometown boy, Andy Kozak. Their mothers had gone to parochial school together. She gave her only child a good Irish name, Kevin.

She didn't need the French Riviera. She was ecstatically happy living near the water in St. Pete Beach.

To our parish office, which she managed from 2001 until her death at age 45 on September 8, 2007, she brought a warmth and hospitality that transcended all geographical boundaries and cultures and made everyone feel welcome and wanted.

In our view, she left us too soon. But, as she did, we trust in God and his plans for her.

-Father Gibbons