Data processor enjoyed traveling

4/6/2005

ADDISON, Mich. - Regina Alice Urbanski, a former data processor who enjoyed traveling, died of brain cancer Sunday in the Arbor Hospice in Ann Arbor. She was 86.

Mrs. Urbanski, a data processor in the accounting department of the Teledyne Corp. for 31 years, was a dedicated worker who didn't want to retire.

Her stepson Bill Urbanski said she was proud of the work she did and enjoyed contributing to the company. "She was actually working in computerization before computers were really popular," he said.

After graduating from high school in the 1930s, she worked for Toledo Scale, LaSalle and Koch, and A.O. Smith Corp.

She got into the data processing field when one of her bosses suggested she go to school because the company was laying off employees. He told her that if she learned new skills, she could probably stay, her son, James Bialecki, said.

She retired from Teledyne in 1988 and moved to Michigan a few years later.

Mrs. Urbanski was active throughout her life. She helped organize St. Patrick of Heatherdowns parish in the late 1950s, and was a den mother for the Cub Scouts there in the early 1960s.

Recently, she put 30,000 miles on her new car in a year because she drove so much. She drove to Florida last year, and drove from Addison to Toledo almost every day, her stepson said.

Mrs. Urbanski was born June 11, 1918 in Toledo's Polish Village. She graduated from Woodward High School.

She married William A. Urbanski in 1984. He died in 1995.

She was a member of St. Hedwig's Catholic Church, the Epicurean Club, the Lourdes College auxiliary, and the Toledo Business & Professional Women's Club.

She participated in the Sylvania Senior Center's annual Follies and did square and line dancing at the Bedford Senior Center.

She enjoyed traveling, including trips to Europe and all over the United States. "She was very active and traveled all over the country to visit friends," her son said.

Surviving are her son, James Bialecki; stepsons, William and Jordan Urbanski; stepdaughter, Monica Holzemer; brothers, Thaddeus and Henry Kostanski; sister, Leocadia Lipinksi; 12 step-grandchildren, and 16 step-great-grandchildren.

The body will be in the Bedford Funeral Chapel from 2 to 8 pm. today. Services will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow in St. Hedwig's Catholic Church.

The family suggests tributes to a charity of the donor's choice.