Rodney Mark Jaros, 85, of Southbury, CT and longtime resident of Danbury, CT and Chappaqua, NY died peacefully on Friday, June 28, 2024 while surrounded by his family. Mr. Jaros was the loving husband of the late Mary (Raedy) Jaros.
Mr. Jaros was born on June 13, 1939 in Waterbury, CT; a son of the late Kasmir and Helen (Rupp) Jaros, they lived in Waterbury, CT until he was nine and then moved to Terryville, CT where his father, a chemical engineer, worked at Eagle Lock for a short stint until he started his own electroplating business. From a young age, Rod (his preferred nickname) understood the value of working a job to make his own money. From shoveling snow off his neighbors walkways to working at the local bowling alley, his most challenging job was becoming a newspaper delivery boy in which he would deliver the Hartford Courant on his bike, which was particularly time consuming. A mischievous pre-teen, he decided to take the old family Chevy on his route one day. Stopped at an intersection, a police cruiser who knows him tells him to take the car home immediately! Rod was an avid writer as well as reader and he documented this and many other stories of growing up in Terryville in his autobiography entitled Learning Curves–An Early Years Memoir.
At fifteen, Rod was sent to Williston Northampton School (formerly Williston Academy) for high school. He would spend the next four years there engaged in activities such as Baseball, Basketball, and Glee Club. He then went on to study at Fairfield University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Social Science in 1961. Rod also obtained his Masters in English at Trinity College in Hartford and his Masters in Library Science from University of Hartford.
On February 17, 1962, Rod would marry his hometown crush, Mary Raedy, in Terryville. She was the love of his life. Rod and Mary raised three children together. Initially in West Covina, CA for just one year where their eldest was born, they moved back east to Chappaqua, NY in Westchester County where their children called home and attended primary and high school. After the children graduated college, Rod and Mary moved to Danbury, CT where they lived until Mary’s passing in November 2022 where Rod lovingly cared for her during her difficult struggle with dementia. Rod and Mary enjoyed sixty years of marriage.
An English teacher turned librarian, Mr. Jaros worked over 30 years at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, NY where he also lived and raised his family. Upon retirement, Rod worked several years in the library at The Wooster School in Danbury, CT. During summer months, Rod and his late wife, Mary and children summered in Cape Cod for decades. During some of this time they owned and operated a small inn in Eastham until they built a home near Nauset Beach in East Orleans where they would spend most of their summers, until eventually moving to Osterville. When he and his wife were not on the Cape or at their home in Danbury, they spent their winter months at their home in Saint Lucie West, FL where Rod enjoyed many a day walking out their backdoor to play his hand at golf, where he admittedly was not so good at! When not playing golf, Rod created a successful online golf newsletter called ‘Different Strokes’ in which there were many thousands of subscribers. He also found tremendous joy in spending time with his grandchildren especially attending their soccer, lacrosse, and track meets over the years.
He truly embodied the idea of a “renaissance man,” mastering hobbies from furniture making; sailing the family boat on Pleasant Bay in Cape Cod; reading voraciously books of all genres but especially classic westerns; becoming a licensed pilot; playing the flute, clarinet, saxophone, guitar, ukulele, and even the harmonica. If you needed a deck put on your house, Rod was the man to design and build it – with or without a hot tub! Known as a car guy, a lover of sports cars, he also enjoyed restoring a 1954 Chevy pickup with his son Matthew.
Mr. Jaros is survived by his three children: Kristin Boylan and her husband, Timothy; Mattew Jaros and his wife, Emily Wong; and Mark Jaros. Mr. Jaros is also survived by four grandchildren: Hannah, Luke & Finn Boylan and Tyler Jaros, as well as his sister Melanie Donnelly and brother-in-law Andrew, sisters-in-law Stephania Dedman, Margaret Butler and her husband Dennis, and 11 nieces and nephews.
Family and friends will be received on Thursday, July 25, 2024 from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Kane Funeral Home; 25 Catoonah Street, Ridgefield. A funeral mass will be celebrated on Friday, July 26, 2024 at 10:00 AM at Saint Mary’s Church; 55 Catoonah Street, Ridgefield. Interment will take place privately.