This page is dedicated to Stanley "Stan the man" Cupryna.
The club had an unfortunate loss. Just 2 days prior to the meeting, Stan (The Man) Cupryna, passed away.
Stan’s wake was held on the club meeting night. It was approximately 10 miles from the planned meeting location. The wake ran from 5 to 8 pm. The meeting started at 7 pm.
Thanks to the heads up thinking and motivated organizing of the members, we were able to honor Stan with a cruise in to his wake. The club got the cars together at the meeting and caravanned to the chapel. Tom Rhude drew the short straw, and had to stay behind at Wagner’s drive in for late comers.
There were a dozen T.R.s that rolled in just before 8 pm. The crowd was just starting to thin out. Stan was a very popular guy. There was no chance of parking anywhere near by, any earlier. It turned out well timing wise.
I’m sure Stan was smiling. I know I would be.
I will be honored if I have a small portion of the turnout that he did. There was well over a hundred people there.
After a while there was enough street parking to get the T.R.s lined up in front and take a few pics. We could only fit 10 along the street. That line stretched to the end of the block.
Stan Cupryna
I attended the funeral for Stan today. There was a capacity crowd in the chapel again. The chapel has 3 separate rooms to facilitate concurrent wakes and funerals. Stan’s took all three rooms with overflow outside. There was over 150 people there.
This being on a weekday, during business hours. Friday 11 am. I know there had to be some who couldn’t get off of work. I know the rail road doesn’t stop for anything or anyone. Trains will run, no matter what. Stan was a retired railroad worker like me. I’m sure there were plenty of people that would have liked to attend, but were unable to do so because of that.
The procession was unmanageable. We had several different directions and routes taken. We all finally managed to gather at the cemetery. There was a nice grave side service. We were invited to lunch after. I had a nice meal on Stan, since it was his turn to buy.
I thought about it the last couple of days. I feel like there is an absence of a force now with Stan gone. He represented a special something to me that I didn’t consciously realize until my recent reflection. We had some things in common. We both are rail road retirees, both cancer victims, both automotive enthusiasts (read car nuts). That’s not what I kept going back to. Not what the important thing was.
The important thing was so simple. Stan knew how to live! He did it so effortlessly that it was not readily apparent, just how special a gift that really is.
He had a debilitating handicap that he treated as an inconvenience.
He quite simply went about life with the deliberate determination of a person that is well aware of what is to be accomplished and what tools he had available. He did what it took, and did it cheerfully, without complaint. He had a knack of dealing with adversity that was both charming and disarming.
I see now the valuable life lesson Stan taught me. He did it without ever saying, “Pay attention, I’m trying to show you something here!” He just did it by example. Truly the best, and possibly the only way, to teach anybody, anything.
Tom Shea
His coffin, along with his attire made it very clear he was a Buick guy through and through. He was dressed in a Buick shirt and had some sort of racing blanket with an Elvis cutout and a pack of Pall Malls. He had a turbo 6 lapel pin on his collar. John at Master Transmission had decals made up that were placed on Stans coffin. I think they looked great and a picture was taken of only the decals as a keepsake.
The club (MGNTA) is going to have a memorial sticker available. It will look something like this,
This will be a decal and will not have a background, it will be a small sitcker best suited for a window. I will replace this image with a picture of one of the decals actually on a car. When they become available anyone that wants one of these can contact any club officer to purchase one. We hope to have them in a couple of weeks.
© 2007 MGNTA.com
