Stephen A. Gwozdz of Attleboro, MA passed away on December 26, 2024. Steve was born May 4, 1938 in Taunton, MA to Antoni and Victoria Gwozdz, the youngest of eleven children. An uncle every day of his life, Steve's oldest sister, Mary, gave birth to his nephew Bill Scovers a year before Steve was born.

Steve was naturally athletic, a quarterback and catcher in high school despite never being the biggest player on any team. Decades later, people in Taunton would stop him to say they remembered seeing him catch baseball games.

After graduating from Taunton High, Steve enlisted in the United States Air Force. He was stationed in Vermont, Texas and, most notably, Alaska. Steve and other Airmen shoveled snow from around runway lights at Elmendorf Air Force Base, helping to keep our fighters and bombers in the air to play their deadly-serious aerial game of cat and mouse with the Russians at the height of the Cold War.

Steve's love for sports led him to work as a trainer at the base gym. As his time in the service came to its end, Steve developed a plan: He would apply to the Physical Therapy Program at the University of Connecticut, with a back-up plan if he wasn't accepted of working in the Salmon canneries and buying a Corvette. Fortunately, he got into UConn, completed his degree and went on to a life-long career as a physical therapist. He cared for, and cared deeply about, injured student athletes, victims of accidents, elderly patients and people with special needs.

In 1963, Steve married Patricia Sullivan of Brooklyn, NY. They were married for nearly sixty years, until her passing in May of 2022. Steve and Patricia (never "Pat," to him) raised two children, facing life's challenges and celebrating its triumphs together with humor, grace and an obvious and endless love for each other.

Soon after losing Patricia in 2022, Steve and the rest of the family endured the tragic loss of Ben Kelley, one of his two beloved grandsons. Steve leaves behind a son, Bob Sullivan of New Hampshire, a daughter, Maryanne Kelley of Attleboro and a grandson, Jack Kelley and his significant other, Courtney Beale, of Attleboro.

There will be no formal services but a celebration of Steve's life and Patricia's will be announced in early 2025