Eugene Sopczak

Eugene Sopczak was born & raised in Geneva, Ohio, & he graduated from Geneva High School. After the Air Force, he attended Kent State University graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education.

Gene met his wife Agnes ( Aggie) Candela in history class while they were students at Kent State University. They were married on August 31, 1963 at our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Ashtabula, Ohio. They then moved to Marion, Ohio, where they lived & raised their three sons before moving to Columbus, Ohio in 2014.

Gene was a man of many interests & hobbies. He definitely was interested in history, especially archeology.  He read books, belonged to the Ohio Archeological Society, and collected artifacts. He mainly collected arrowheads by walking fields and then mounted & labeled his finds in trays.

As a family we would visit historical sites, mainly in Ohio, on weekends or on vacation. We were fascinated with covered bridges and visited every one of them in Ohio at least once. At one time he belonged to the two covered bridge societies –one in Northern & the other in Southern Ohio.

Also collected stamps, coins and Marx’s trains.  Gene built an elaborate train set-up in our basement.

Gene enjoyed flowers and had beautiful flower beds in our yard. He use to belong to the Bonsai club in Columbus and enjoyed working with bonsai plants.

He built a fiberglass canoe in the ‘70s. We had a lot of fun with it.

Gene also collected and refinished antique furniture. We had an antique business and did antique shows for several years.

This active man also did some woodworking.

Watching sports: We even spent about 10 years traveling to Cleveland Indians spring training games. What fun that was.

The other sport he really enjoyed watching was OSU basketball.

Sports he actively participated in: hunting, fishing and trapping.