He never said much about the war. He said everything with how he showed up after.

Her life

Daniel Stanislaw Kowalski, 67, of Cleveland, died at home on March 2, 2026, after a short illness. He served as a Specialist Four with the First Infantry Division in Vietnam from 1969 to 1971. He came home and did not talk much about it. In 1972 he started Kowalski Plumbing out of his father’s garage. He ran it for thirty-eight years, with the same two phone numbers and the same policy of answering after-hours calls until the day he retired in 2010. He married Linda in 1976. They were married forty-nine years.

A short eulogy

My dad was a quiet man. I want to start there, because if you knew him you knew that. He did not fill silences. He let them sit. When you talked to him, he looked at you. He listened. Then he answered, or he did not. Both were fine with him.

He almost never talked about Vietnam. He talked about it twice with me, that I remember. Once when I was eleven and I asked. He said, it was a long time ago, and most of what I want to remember is from after. So I do not have the war for you. I have the after.

The after is this. He answered the phone at two in the morning. People’s basements flooded. People’s pipes burst on a Christmas Eve. People who could not pay him called him anyway, because everybody in this neighborhood knew that Dan Kowalski would come, and Dan Kowalski would fix it, and Dan Kowalski would not bring up the bill at the kitchen table.

He taught all five of his grandchildren how to fix something. He taught us to look people in the eye when we shook their hand. He was, in the truest sense of the word, present. Dad. You are the man I judge other men by. Rest. You earned it.

Stories

From Linda Kowalski, wife: I met Dan at a wedding in 1974. He was in the corner. He was not dancing. I went over and I asked him if he was alright. He said, I am fine, and I sat down next to him, and we sat there for about forty minutes and we did not say much, and at the end of forty minutes I knew.

From Sergeant First Class Eddie Marquez (Ret.), Army buddy, 1st Infantry Division: Dan and I served together from June 1970 through his rotation home. He was a quiet kid from Cleveland. He carried more than his share. He never complained. Christmas card every year. He called me on my birthday for forty-eight years.

From Bill Sosnowski, longtime customer: Dan Kowalski plumbed my house in 1984. He plumbed the addition in 1991. He fixed the water heater that died on Thanksgiving in 2009. He took my call on Thanksgiving. He was there in forty minutes. He brought a paper plate of pierogi that his wife had made him put in the truck.

From Walt Czernecki, VFW Post 7521: Dan was at the post every Thursday night for fifty years. He sat in the same seat at the same table. He played gin. He was on the honor guard. We folded a lot of flags together. He folded a flag the right way every time, the corner just so. We will fold his on Friday. Rest easy, Spec 4.