Name: George K. Christoff



Life Dates: 10/3/1914 - 11/23/2007



City Of Birth: Fairmount, IL



Pre-deceased by

Predeceased by his daughter Coleen; parents Petra Kosta; siblings Alexander, Helen, Al Katherine.



Survived by

Survived by his loving wife of 61 years Victoria (Nick) Christoff; children Carole (Eddie) Thomas, David (Julie) Christoff, Connie Christoff, Sue Vella, Kitty (Frank) Billiski Don (Jennifer) Christoff; grandchildren Gina (Fred) Barkley Jr, Jodi (Chris) Bretz, April (Mike) McCormick, Josh Starr Vella, Adam (Tania), Amy, Joe, Haley, Ben, Sarah Christoff, Mike, Matt Alexis Gregory; great-grandchildren Michael (Ricci), Jared, Isabel, Tyler, Sebastian, Marek, Madison, Maia, Freddie Kayla; sisters Mary Begy Martha Cox; brother Lee Christoff; many nieces, nephews cousins.



History

George K. Christoff was born October 3, 1914 at approximately 11:00 a.m. in Fairmount, Illinois to Kosta and Petra Christoff. He was the second oldest of 8 children. In December 1914, the family moved to Rochester, NY. They had a bakery at 191 Lyell Ave, for a time, then between 1920 and 1921 moved to 404 Lexington Ave and opened up a grocery store. The family lived above the store. He attended Holy Rosary grammar school and Aquinas High School. He worked in the family store, but his father encouraged him to continue his education. He attended St. Bonaventure and graduated from Niagara University in 1938 with a major in English. He was also the captain of the basketball team. Upon graduation he returned to work at the family grocery store. On April 1, 1941 he was drafted in the Army and was stationed in Columbia S.C. until he was given orders to go overseas. He was transported to San Francisco and arrived in Sidney, Australia on October 12, 1942. He was stationed in Rockhampton but was reassigned to New Guinea until he was discharged from the Army. He left from the Phillipines and arrived home in September of 1945. George met Victoria Nick a few years before he entered the Army. They wrote to each other during his time in the service. They dated upon his return from the service and on March 3, 1946 they were engaged and married June 19th that year. He attended a butcher school in Toledo, Ohio after the birth of their first child. The family had opened a second grocery store on Driving Park @ Bidwell Ter, and George became the butcher for the market. George and Vicky had 7 children (5 girls, 2 boys), Carole, David "Davey", Connie, Christine "Suzy""Sue" Cathleen "Kitty""Kit", Donald "Donnie""Don" but lost Coleen, the youngest daughter to leukemia in 1957. When they were first married, they lived in an apartment on the Christoff family property at the corner of Mt. Read and Lexington, but had a house build at 202 Stenson Street and moved in, in 1951, with four young children. In 1959 in left the family store to work at Tobin`s Meat Processing Plant as a butcher until the company closed in 1972 and he was forced into early retirement at 61. Although he always worked long hours both at the family store and at Tobin`s, he found time to take his children to dance lessons; their baseball, soccer, hockey practice and games; Amerk`s games; wrestling matches; ice skating at Genesee Valley rink, etc. He also found time to take art lessons at Edison Tech night school; teach himself how to play the guitar; and coached basketball at Most Precious Blood Grammar School. When he retired, he continued to remain active. He would take the bus downtown and meet his friends for coffee and philosophic discussions. He would then volunteer to teach painting at Garson-Myer Senior Center. From there he would spend the day at the Rundel Library. You could usually find him in the Local History Section, but most of the librarians knew him. If the library had a book sale, you would find him walking home from the bus-stop with, at least, two bags of books, one in each hand. He and Vicky would also take the bus to downtown, Irondequoit Mall, or eventually to Greece Town Mall and home. From 1986 until his stroke in 2005 he would spend his nights and early mornings surfing the net on his WebTV. Vicky would find him hunched over the keyboard sound asleep. He could order library books on line and someone could pick and drop off the books for him when he couldn`t take the bus anymore. His happiest times were spent with his family. He loved the children. He was known as Papa. He always had time for them, no matter what was going on in his life. You felt very special when you were with him. Even in the last few months, when he wasn`t well, all he had to do was to see one of the kids and his face would light up and the pain would disappear for those moments. His loyalty was to his family. When he was discharged from the Army, he was offered a Court Stenographer position in Washington, D.C. He turned the position down because he wanted to help out his parents. When he graduated from Butcher School, they offered him a teaching job, but his loyalties were in Rochester, NY so he turned that down. Although he lost his speech with the stroke, his smile conveyed his kindness and humor. All of his caretakers wanted us to know how much they loved caring for him and how wonderful he was to care for. He made everyone feel special. When you were with him, you were special. You had his complete attention. His favorite hobby was oil painting and sketching while listening to his classical music channel. He loved nature: flowers, butterflies, birds, horses, collecting rocks, being by water, especially the canal. He loved humor: Rocky and Bullwinkle, Charlie Chaplin, the old Batman Robin TV series, Laurel and Hardy, Monty Python and Keeping up Appearances. Old comic strips, and corny jokes. He loved to reminisce about the old days horse-drawn wagons, rides on the trolley, rides on the carousel at Seabreeze He loved all sports, and his favortie teams were the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Miami Dolphins but he hated: the Yankees, the Bills, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Tiger Woods. He played basketball, baseball(pitcher switch hitter), tennis, bowling and he loved playing golf with is brother Lee and friends, in his retirement years he also enjoyed playing with his children. He was great in all of the sports he pursued. He loved books: His favorite childhood book was "King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable". He could have opened a used bookstore with the books that he collected over the years. He loved them all.. from drawing and painting books to self-hypnotise and comic strips. He loved the arts: Music, art, poetry, dance He protected the weak and fought the abuser of power. He admired the Native American, despised pretentious politics, and hated war He recommended the following anti-war movies: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and All Quiet on the Western Front. So, when you see or hear beauty in nature; hear or read something humorous; think about the old days; watch a good sports event; experience an injustice; hear a beautiful song; experience an artistic moment;play with a child; or are just curled up with a good book... Papa will be there sharing those moments with you. And always remember to "Roll with the punches".



Services

Visitation Saturday, December 1st from 1PM until 4PM. A celebration of George's life will follow at 4:00PM.