Louise G. Pierok Tkachyk

Louise G. Drozdiak Pierok Tkachyk died on November 27, 2009, age 80, of Maple Shade and Collingswood, N.J. Wife of the late Jacob Tkachyk, Jr. and the late Walter Pierok. Mother of John and wife Diane, Anne and husband Bjorn Lang-Ree, Alexander, and Rita Pierok, she is also survived by devoted stepson Joseph Tkachyk and Gerry and wife Colleen Tkachyk, and five grand children: Nicholas and Allison Pierok and Jason, Gerry, and Justin Tkachyk. Also surviving are two of her six siblings Mary and husband Theodore Trujillo of Albuquerque, NM and Alexander and wife Dorothy Drozdiak of McKeesport, PA, and many in-laws, nieces and nephews.

Louise was the daughter of Professor Alexander and Anna Drozdiak, and was raised in Shamokin, PA. She was a 1946 graduate of Shamokin High School, and received a bachelor's degree in home economics from Penn State University in 1950. Upon graduation, she served as a dietician in the United States Army Women's Medical Corps and achieved the rank of First Lieutenant during the Korean Conflict. After her marriage to Walter Pierok in 1953, Louise lived in Bethlehem, PA and then Collingswood, NJ, where she was involved in many community activities and worked as a substitute teacher and teacher's aide in the Collingswood Public School System throughout the 1970s until 1984. In 1984, she began a ten-year career at Martin Marietta now Lockheed Martin, retiring in 1994, marrying Jacob Tkachyk, Jr and moving to Maple Shade, NJ.

Louise was an active parishioner at St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where she was a member of the Ladies' Auxiliary.

A Visitation will be held, Wednesday, December 2, 2009, in Connell Funeral Home, Inc., 245 East Broad Street, Bethlehem, Pa. 18018 from 6-8 p.m. with a Parastas Service at 7 p.m. Another visitation will be held, Thursday, from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in the funeral home followed by an Office of Christian Burial at 10 a.m. in St. Josaphats Ukrainian Catholic Church, 1826 Kenmore Ave. Bethlehem, PA 18018. Burial will follow Holy Saviour Cemetery, Bethlehem.

Contributions in Louise's honor can be made to the Maple Shade Ambulance Squad, 44 South Maple Ave., Maple Shade, New Jersey, 08052 or to St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church, 675 Cooper Landing Road, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002.