Late councilman remembered as genuine, giving

Some people might remember Victor “Vic” Szatkowski, a Pomona Park resident for 43 years, as “Soup R Man,” while others might have known him as a friend, neighbor or councilman. 

To his daughter, Kim Hall, Szatkowski was her “bonus dad.” 

Szatkowski, 83, who served on the Pomona Park Town Council for eight years, passed away unexpectedly Aug. 26 in his Pomona Park home. 

Hall said her bonus dad spent his free time mowing lawns for his neighbors and making soup for others during the weekends. 

“He had the most genuine and giving heart,” Hall said Thursday about her stepfather, who she considers her father. 

One of Hall’s favorite memories of her father centers around a morning when she was 10 as she was eating breakfast with him and his friends. She said she used to tag along when they ate at a restaurant on the St. Johns River. Hall remembers her father telling her the barges she saw traveling up and down the river carried cow manure that powered electricity. 

She now knows it wasn’t true, she laughed. 

Hall, her daughter and Szatkowski sat at the same restaurant 12 years later, and Hall said she was proud to pass along the same story Szatkowski once told her. 

As soon as she told her daughter the story, she remembers her stepfather spitting his breakfast across the table in disbelief. 

He didn’t know Hall had believed cow manure powered electricity for 12 years after he made up that tale.

“It’s one of our favorite funny stories,” she said. 

Aside from cracking jokes, Szatkowski loved to teach, his daughter said. He let people learn from their mistakes but was also there to catch them if they needed, she said. 

Hall said that when Szatkowski began dating her mom, Judy Szatkowski, he taught Hall how to read. Petunia Pig books were their go-tos.

Vic and Judy got married Sept. 16, 1984, and they would have celebrated 39 years of marriage on the same day as the late councilman’s memorial service. 

No matter what came into their lives, Hall said, her father continued to land on his feet again. He owned and operated numerous businesses in the area and kept reinventing himself. 

In July 2015, the Pomona Park Beautification Committee presented Vic Szatkowski with an award for his yard work, jumpstarting his interest in public service. 

After that, Hall said, he wanted to get elected to the Town Council, which he did in October 2015. Vic Szatkowski took his role seriously, she added, and said as soon as he got a smartphone, he would review the town charter on his phone in his spare time. 

Vic Szatkowski was always a man who had a strong sense of knowing right from wrong, Hall said. 

County Commissioner Bill Pickens said learning of Vic Szatkowski’s passing was shocking. Pickens knew Vic Szatkowski through business and had conversations with him after the councilman was elected to serve Pomona Park. 

“It’s a loss for this community,” Pickens said Friday. 

He called Vic Szatkowski a professional and a gentleman who was always polite and respectful. 

If Vic Szatkowski wasn’t doing council business, he loved fishing, taking care of his lawn and helping people, Hall said. Every Saturday, she said, Vic Szatkowski would wake up around 3 a.m. and make soup through the afternoon, hence his name “Soup R Man.”

His soup-making habit was another way for him to serve his community, Hall said. It started as part of Pomona Park’s community meals but it snowballed from there, she said. 

Vic and Judy Szatkowski delivered the soup, made at their expense, every Monday, Hall added. 

Vic Szatkowski’s memorial service will begin at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 16 at the Pomona Park Community Center, 200 E. Main St. Szatkowski served in the Army so military honors will be presented during his service. 

People can share memories and condolences at johnsonoverturffunerals.com. 

Hall said she plans to spend his memorial telling stories and seeing how many lives her stepfather impacted. 

“How do you sum up a person’s life in half an hour?” Hall questioned. “You look around and tell the stories.”