Daniel E. Nowacki

Daniel Edward Nowacki had his fill of this Earth and departed from it on May 4th, 2025 at his home in Brooklyn, MI.  He was born in Detroit on July 25, 1938 to Michaline (Gasiorek) Nowacki and Bill Nowacki.  With his dad in the South Pacific and his mom working in the ammunition factory, Dan entered school at an early age, graduating from Holy Redeemer in 1955 and began work as a printer.  On a snowy April 15th in 1961, Dan married Kathleen Pietruszka.  Not wanting their two young sons raised in post-riot Detroit, Dan and Kathleen relocated to their summer cottage that would become his home for the remainder of his life.

Dan took on many jobs, from printing to motorcycle and snowmobile repair to industrial machining and hot tub repair.  On winter weekends, he was crew chief on Knutson’s snowmobile race team.  There was nothing he couldn’t fix with a Craftsman wrench.  There was no neighbor he wouldn’t help.  Always available to Camp DeSales for tasks; from keeping any and all equipment running, to trenching a water line.  He would make the effort to repair things just for the fascination of disassembling them to better understand how they work.

If you didn’t know what Dan was thinking about something, give him five minutes, he would give you his unfiltered opinion.  Unapologetically free thinking and a proud American, his doppelganger will never exist.

Dan was preceded in death by his parents, his sisters Lucille Nowacki, and Mary Ann (Robert) Zukowski.  He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Kathleen, their children, Mark, Matt, Elizabeth (Jeffery) Oven, and Luke.  Five grandchildren, Michaeline (Jamie) Holman, Katelyn, Barclay Oven, Garrett Oven, and Violet Mead, Two great-grandchildren, Levi and Josephine Holman, his brother, John and brother-in-law Robert Zukowski and many nieces and nephews.  His grandkids and great grandkids brought him exceptional joy.

A funeral mass will be held on Saturday, May 10th at his beloved Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Chapel at Camp DeSales as his family tries to adjust to the loss of this mountain of a man.  A pizza luncheon to remember Dan will be held on Sunday, June 29 from 11am-2pm at the Banquet Hall of the Super 8 Hotel in Brooklyn, MI (419 S. Main Street./M-50). If you would like to pay respects to Dan, leave your phone behind and walk into a forest to connect with the beauty of nature as he would.

See you on the other side, Pop.