Obituaries

Agnes Marie Rybicki, 89, of our unnamed internet town, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, September 9, 2026, at her home on Lakeview Drive. She was the first resident of this town to have died here, a distinction she would have found either funny or irrelevant, depending on her mood that day.

Agnes was born January 14, 1937, in Pulaski, Wisconsin, the second of four children of Frank and Irena (Gorski) Rybicki. She spent most of her life in Pulaski and the Green Bay area, where she raised three children, worked for twenty years at the county clerk’s office, served as a eucharistic minister at St. John the Baptist Parish for thirty years, and became known in her neighborhood for two things: the regularity with which she put out suet for the birds, and the quality of her kringle, which she adapted from a Danish recipe she found in a 1974 issue of a magazine she cannot now recall.

She moved to this town six weeks ago at the invitation of her grandson, Bobby Stankiewicz, who had recently taken a job as a Model Fitter at the new factory and who felt, he said, “that she would like it here,” which proved correct. Agnes was reported by neighbors to have approved of the town’s cleanliness, its proximity to the lake, and the quality of the Piggly Wiggly’s cheese selection. She was less certain about “all the internet business” but was “willing to see how it goes.”

She is survived by her grandson Bobby Stankiewicz; her son Gerald Rybicki of Pulaski; her daughter Diane Kowalczyk of De Pere (no relation to the alderman, she was careful to note); and four great-grandchildren whose names she could recite in birth order without consulting notes, which she considered her proudest skill.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Saturday, September 13, at 10 a.m. at St. Casimir’s Catholic Church. Father Borowski presiding. Burial to follow at the town’s new cemetery, which Agnes will be among the first to occupy, a distinction she also would have found either funny or irrelevant.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the St. Casimir’s Pierogi Fund or suet feeders for whatever birds find their way here.

Howard Lee Dembowski, 85, passed away Wednesday evening at his home on Commerce Avenue, which he had moved into three weeks ago with the express purpose, he told his daughter, of “watching the factory open from my front porch.” He did. He was in his chair on the porch on Thursday morning when the ceremony began, and his daughter reports that he applauded when the ribbon fell, which he had said he planned to do.

Howard worked for thirty-five years as a machinist at various shops in the Oshkosh area, retiring in 2006. He was known for the precision of his work (“a thousandth of an inch is a thousandth of an inch,” he was fond of saying), his opinions about the designated hitter rule (negative), and his ability to fix almost anything mechanical given sufficient time and a cup of coffee.

He is survived by his daughter Patricia Dembowski-Hall of Oshkosh, his son Greg Dembowski of Milwaukee, and five grandchildren. His wife of forty-six years, Rosemary (Czarnecki) Dembowski, preceded him in death in 2019.

Private service at the family’s direction. Interment to follow. In lieu of flowers: a donation to the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation, or simply fixing something in your house that has needed fixing for a while. Howard would have preferred the latter.