Former Zip passes suddenly

[Zip Watcher]

I'm friends with one of his daughters. This was an extremely unexpected passing.

The Link

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Alana Baranick

Plain Dealer Reporter

Peninsula - John A. Lahoski, a Peninsula businessman and North Pole Express elf, collapsed Monday evening while lighting luminaria on the Ohio 303 bridge across the Cuyahoga River.

Lahoski, 63, had been helping his wife, Judith, decorate the Peninsula bridge for the holidays by lighting the candles that stand in open, sand-filled pa per bags.

"Then he was going to go down and be an elf for the evening," his wife said.

Lahoski, who ran Terry Lumber and Peninsula Hardwoods in Peninsula, was taken to Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

"It must have been a heart attack," his wife said.

For the last 12 Christmas seasons, Lahoski's lumber and hardware business morphed into the North Pole for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad's holiday train. Now called the North Pole Express, it was known as the Polar Express before the Chris Van Allsburg story of the same name was made into a motion picture last year and created copyright problems.

The Express, like its fictional counterpart, carries pajama-clad, cocoa-sipping, cookie-eating youngsters and their parents from boarding sites in Independence and Akron through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus.

Lahoski, dressed as Santa's white-bearded, lantern-carrying chief elf, greeted tiny tots with their eyes all aglow and noses pressed against the windows as the train pulled up.

"When you see those little faces, it tells you something about Christmas," Lahoski told The Plain Dealer in 2003. "It gives you strength to believe in some of the things that have gone by the wayside."

The North Pole Express made its final run of the 2005 season Tuesday night. The annual attraction is so popular that tickets for the November-December runs are sold by lottery in September. Order forms for the 2006 North Pole Express lottery will be available in August, according to the railroad's Web site: www.cvsr.com.

Lahoski, born in Boston Township, was a longtime resident of Peninsula. He chaired commissions in the 1980s and 1990s that unsuccessfully sought to merge the two communities in which he had lived his entire life.

He graduated from Boston Township High School and the University of Akron, where he excelled in football. Primarily a fullback, he rushed for 766 yards and 14 touchdowns for the Zips as a senior. He also made an impression as a linebacker. He had the distinction of being named All-Ohio Conference running back and linebacker his senior year.

Lahoski received Akron's James Horrigan Award for Male Athlete of the Year for 1963-64 and was inducted into the school's sports hall of fame in 1976.

He was a teacher and head football coach at Woodridge High School in Peninsula for many years. He left the classroom and the football field in 1981 to join his wife's father, Terry Montaquila, in the family business.

In addition to his wife of 39 years, survivors include his daughters, Lori Reagan of Broadview Heights and Beth Jimenez of Spain; sons, Terry and John J., both of Peninsula; seven grandchildren; a sister; and two brothers.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church, 6034 South Locust St., Peninsula 44264.

Donations may be made to the church; the Terry Montaquila Fund, P.O. Box 216, Peninsula 44264; and Peninsula Village-Valley Fire District, Peninsula 44264.

Arrangements are by Johnson-Romito Funeral Home of Hudson.

[Zip34]

I played for JL when he was a coach at Woodridge. Not only was he a great teacher and coach, he was even a better person. He will be dearly missed.