Sandhills_Sentinel

Julius (“Jules”) Skalski died on April 24th at Saint Joseph of the Pines Health Center (Southern Pines, NC) after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Jules was born in 1930 in Palisades Park, NJ, the eighth of nine children of Polish immigrants. At the age of seven, his father died in a construction accident. Jules graduated with honors from Leonia High School in 1948. In 1951 he enlisted in the US Navy, becoming an aviation electronics technician stationed at the training school in Memphis, TN. In 1953 he married Florence Michalak from Brooklyn, NY and together they moved to Newfoundland, Canada, where Jules served as a First Class Petty Officer of the Fleet Aircraft Service Squadron 109.

Jules was discharged from the Navy in 1955, and went on to graduate from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (1959) with a BS in Electrical Engineering, and from NYU (1961) with a MS in Electrical Engineering. In 1959 Jules began working for AT&T at Bell Labs in Homdel, NJ, where for 13 years he was a telecommunications equipment design engineer. During this time, he and his wife Florence raised two sons and a daughter in Deal, NJ.

In 1972 Jules began working as a technical expert on analog and digital transmission equipment for the domestic telecommunications department of AT&T’s Long Lines in Somerset, NJ. After ten years, Jules was detailed to work in the international division to lay fiber optic undersea cables, establishing the undersea digital cable network that became the transmission backbone of the Internet. His work took him to France, Egypt, England, Greece, Sweden, Israel, Japan, Ireland, Philippines, Korea, and China. Fortunately his wife Florence was able to accompany him on many of his travels.

Jules retired in the early ‘90s and with Florence moved to North Carolina, where they were actively engaged in community service. Together they volunteered at St. Joseph of the Pines, Florence as a friendly visitor to residents, Jules as an assistant in the administrative offices. Jules joined the Knights of Columbus, serving as the financial secretary. But most importantly, Jules empowered people with computers, becoming a local “cyber angel.” With his friend Don Shereda, Jules collected used computers, refurbished them, and then placed the reconditioned computers in, for example, special education classrooms, senior centers, and the Alzheimer’s unit of the then Carolina House. Jules also informally distributed computers to anyone in need.

Jules is preceded in death by his wife Florence, and sons Joseph and Michael. Jules is survived by his daughter Elizabeth, one brother Stanislaus (Phyllis), sisters-in-law Beryl, Ronnie, Elaine, and Florence’s sister Joan (Leo) Montini, and numerous nieces, nephews and friends. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 30th at Saint Anthony of Padua in Southern Pines, followed by burial in Saint Anthony’s Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the Jack Sullivan Scholarship Fund, Saint Pope John Paul II School, 2922 Camp Easter Road, Southern Pines, NC 28387.

Online condolences may be made at www.bolesfuneralhome.com.

Services are entrusted to Boles Funeral Home of Southern Pines.

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