After a valiant 3½-year battle with cancer, Victor Martin Szalankiewicz Jr., 71, a loving husband, father and grandfather, entered eternal life surrounded by loved ones at his home in Pinehurst, Monday, Aug. 13, 2012.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 18, at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Pinehurst. Vic will be interred later this year with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
A former resident of Dallas, Vic was born in Easthampton, Mass., the son of Victor and Lucy Szalankiewicz. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Vic was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He had a 20-year distinguished career in the Marine Corps and served in the 1st and 2d Marine Divisions. He served two tours in the Vietnam War, 1967 and 1971, one as a rifle company commander and the other as an adviser to the Vietnamese Marine Corps.
Vic was most proud of the two combat tours he spent with the U.S. and Vietnamese Marines. For his service during this period, he was awarded two Bronze Stars with Combat “V” for valor and numerous other personal awards. For his meritorious service to Corps and country, he was also awarded the Legion of Merit. After 20 years of service, he retired as a lieutenant colonel and moved on to the next phase of his life.
Vic worked in management at Satellite Business Systems, and as director of operations at RealCom in McLean, Va., as a national accounts manager at MCI in Dallas, and worked as the head of SITA’s travel distribution sector in Dallas. Later, Vic was assigned to the executive staff at SITA’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
In 2006, he and his wife moved to Pinehurst, and shortly thereafter, Vic accepted the position as chief financial officer of Landscape Concepts Construction Inc in Richmond, Ill.
Vic is survived by his loving wife, Elizabeth, of Pinehurst; his daughters, Whitney Szalankiewicz Newell, of Winston-Salem, and Missy Cottrell, of Oakton Va.; his sons Victor Martin Szalankiewicz III, of Oakton, Va., and John Warren Szalankiewicz, of Glenn Burnie, Md.; two sisters, Lucy Levine, of Wolfeboro, N.H., and Carole Salewski, of Lutz, Fla.; and seven grandchildren, CJ, Ben, Emily, John and Kelly Szalankiewicz, and Katie and Keith Knicely.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University Medical Center, P.O. Box 3264, Durham, NC 27710; or the Wounded Warriors Project, P.O. Box 78517, Topeka, KS 66675. Online condolences may be made at www.Pines Funerals.com
Fry and Prickett Funeral Home is serving the family.
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