Mary Patricia Mundzak

Mary Pat Mundzak (nee Hogan), a longtime resident of Cleveland, Ohio and Bradenton, Florida died on February 23, 2025. She was 95.

She was born on November 14, 1929, the daughter of John M. Hogan and his wife Antoinette Timperio. Her father worked at the phone company. Her mother was a contract bride from southern Italy who trained to be a seamstress.

Mary attended Kent State University, joined Delta Gamma (she was a 75-year-member of the “Do Good Sisterhood”), and planned to study business. She switched to special education when she realized that veterans returning from the war would be prioritized for jobs in business.

Mary would often say that the two most important events of her life were marrying her husband Edward Mundzak and attending a spiritual retreat. She married Ed in 1963, and they remained married until his death 52 years later. In 1965, with the encouragement of her husband, she decided to attend a Jesuit spiritual retreat. Until that time, she said her faith was "hanging on the barque of Peter by a fingernail.” That first retreat introduced her to a spiritual practice that would guide her for the rest of her life, and over her lifetime, she would attend four more.

Mary married “late” by the standards of the day, and once married, she and Ed discovered that they couldn’t conceive. Those experiences taught her that her life didn’t have to look like other people’s. She and Ed began to offer room and board to students at nearby John Carroll University. One of those students, Shannon Cain, became an “adopted daughter,” and when Shannon had children, Ed and Mary became an additional pair of grandparents for her six kids.

In 1986, she retired from her work as a special education teacher working with deaf and hard of hearing students in the Mayfield Ohio School District. In the early 1990s, she and her husband began relocating from Cleveland to Bradenton.

Throughout her life, Mary was a church and community activist. She and Edward were members of the Church of the Gesu in Cleveland for 50 years. In the 1980s, she organized a spiritual book club/prayer group and continued to participate (via zoom) until the end of her life. She was active with Christian Life Communities, and in 1993, her leadership in social action and civil rights was recognized with the CLC Development of Peoples Award. In Bradenton, she led the Trust Association at The Shores as well as participating in countless other committees working to improve the lives of the community.

Mary’s engagement with the world was anchored by daily prayer. “If I have a day when I don't do something constructive for someone it feels wasteful,” she said.

She was predeceased by her husband Edward Mundzak, her brother John Patrick Hogan, her sister-in-law Eleanor Hogan and her niece Tricia Hogan. She is survived by nephews Tom, Chris (Barb) Hogan; niece Mary Mundzak Phillips; grandnieces Jennifer, Betsy, Kelly, Bridget, Colleen, and grandnephew Jonathan.

The family is grateful to all the neighbors, friends, Shores staff, caretakers and hospice who lovingly cared for her over the last year.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS ARE INVITED TO GATHER FOR A MASS OF CHRISTIAN BURIAL, 12:30 PM ON FRIDAY, MAY 2ND IN THE MARIAN CHAPEL OF CHRUCH OF THE GESU, 2470 MIRAMAR BLVD., UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, OH 44118.