Roger D. Zemaitis
Posted By Ballard Sunder Funeral Home On August 1, 2020 @ 2:53 pm In 2020,Obituaries | 11 Comments
Roger Delbert Zemaitis, of New Prague, passed away unexpectedly on Thursday, July 30, 2020, at the age of 75. A prayer service and burial ceremony will be held on Wednesday, August 5, 2020, at 11:00 AM at St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery (5437 160th St. SE) in Prior Lake. Fr. Tom Walker will preside, and Prior Lake VFW Post #6208 will provide military honors. Attendees are asked to wear a mask and practice social distancing. Following a reception will take place at The Pointe Grill and Bar (16691 South Hwy 13 West) in Prior Lake.
He was the eldest of two sons, born on December 2nd, 1944, to Dalbert and Margaret Zemaitis in Lusk, Wyoming. Both he and his brother, Gregory, were raised in Rochester, New York.
After graduating high school in Rochester, in 1962, he worked at Kodak in Rochester. In February of 1966, he elected to serve his country by enlisting in the United States Airforce. He completed basic training in Biloxi, Mississippi, and was then stationed in Osceola, Wisconsin. In December of 1969, he was honorably discharged as a Sergeant. Following his service, he met Barbara Gornick (Zemaitis) in 1967 on the Osceola Airforce base at the Halloween dance. They married on June 7th, 1969, in West St. Paul and relocated to Burlington, Wisconsin. Their first son, Michael, was born in 1970. In 1972, they moved to Savage, Minnesota, where they continued to grow their family, Susan 1972 (deceased), Michele 1974, Jim 1977, Catherine 1980, and Tim 1985. He later relocated to Prior Lake and then to New Prague.
While living in Burlington, Roger worked for Wang Laboratories as a repair technician for several years. After relocating to St. Paul, he worked for Leaseametric as a sales engineer and continued his sales profession at Dytec North. He acquired Dytec Instruments in 1986 and managed the firm up until his retirement. He operated one of the pre imminent electronic test and measurement manufacturer’s representative firms, winning numerous national awards and accolades for sales performance over the years. As a Sales Engineer by trade, he was instrumental in understanding his customers’ requirements and offering up solutions to his customers. He thoroughly enjoyed working with his customers, many of who became friends with the firms he represented.
Roger knew the importance of balancing his family with his hobbies. They spent many summers camping in Eau Galle, Wisconsin, and Minnesota and road-tripping to Rochester, New York, and Virginia. In 1989, he decided to incorporate his passion for racing and cars with his business and family. In the early 90s, he decided to build a stock car and race at Elko Speedway in Minnesota with his son Jim and close friends. He continued racing into the early 2000s. While racing, Roger and Jim started projects restoring Jim’s first 1965 Chevy Impala, which then turned into more and more restoration projects over the years. For many years, he was also a member of the Prior Lake Snowmobile Association, where he enjoyed many club trips with his friends.
During the process of restoring cars, he could always talk one of his sons, grandchildren, Dominic (24), Areonna (23), Donte (22), Avantaya (17), Araiya (13), Brooke (8) and Lowynn (3), and friends into tagging along on road trips or treasure hunts to find the most “perfek,” cheapest car or part! Roger enjoyed attending local car shows, including Back To The ’50s and several others. He recently joined the Twin Cities Roadsters club and also enjoyed hanging out with the Stillwater car crew.
He enjoyed fishing with buddies and children throughout the years and always needed to know the best spot to catch the biggest fish. He had no problem asking the locals where the best hot spot was.
Roger was a compassionate, loving, hardworking, funny, big-hearted, car-loving, son, father, “pa” and friend, who loved gathering his family and friends to celebrate everything and nothing.
He is survived by his loving children, Mike Zemaitis, Michele Allure, Jim (Joi Bohn) Zemaitis, Catherine Zemaitis, Tim Zemaitis and their mother, Barbara Zemaitis; grandchildren, Dominic, Areonna, Donte, Avantaya, Araiya, Brooke and Lowynn.
Roger is preceded in death by daughter, Susan Zemaitis; parents, Dalbert and Margaret Zemaitis; brother Gregory Zemaitis.
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Our hearts ache for your loss. Roger was such a dynamic personality and wonderful father. May all your great memories help you in this terribly sad time.
Love, Karen & Jack Keenan
Roger was a great friend and associate in our business. He helped many people acquire the best test equipment for their particular need. His passion for old cars and racing was of the many things we loved about him. He always had a story or two to tell, when ever we would meet up. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
Condolences to his family during this difficult time.
Deb and Don Huberty.
Roger was a great supporter of the Medtronic Calibration department and shared our passion to improve our patients lives. He was also a great supporter of the local Twin Cities calibration community by sponsoring many one day training sessions and bringing in industry speakers from across the country. Roger had a long-lasting impact to all of us in the calibration community and he will be missed.
My condolences to the family during this difficult time.
I lost my father 3 yrs ago, and it still stings at times.
Roger was a great guy! Always fun to talk to.
My favorite memory of him was him allowing a coworker and I to drive his “Jeff Gordon” race car on Elko speedway back in the 90’s while working for ADC Telecom.
Good Times! Thanks Roger! And thank you for your service.
May you be enjoying the glory of the Lord on a sweet track in heaven!
I am very sorry for your family’s loss. Prayers are sent to your family.
When there are no words to soften the pain
May your spirit be touched by the love that surrounds you
and slowly may the healing begin.
I’m very sorry to hear of Roger’s passing. I worked for him at two different times and I always considered him a good friend.
My deepest sympathies to his family
Bob McCarty
My sincerest condolences. Thinking of your family during this difficult time.
My deepest sympathy to the entire family. Roger was a friend and an honest and caring manufacturer’s rep when I worked in Test Systems at Medtronic. He was always interested in helping us find solutions to our issues. Once he asked me what I would want in a signal generator. I wrote a brief description of an arbitrary waveform generator that I do not believe was available from anyone at that time. Much to my surprise some months later Roger showed up to demonstrate a new arbitrary waveform generator from Wavetek that just happened to have all the features in the description I had given him. That solved the problem for me and those generators were incorporated in our automated test systems.
He was such a good person and friend – I will miss him.
Bob Stoner
I was sorry to hear of Roger’s passing. I knew him from Elko Race Track and he was a friend of Bruce Moore. I remember his smiling face and his concern for Bruce and me before Bruce passed away. Always a jolly but thoughtful man.. I send my condolences to his loved ones.
I met Rog when he was hired to expand our Test and Measurement sales at Dytec North in the early 80’s. A few years later we formed a partnership as Dytec Instruments, Inc. Lynn was office manager and Bob McCarty joined us to broaden our knowledge in digital instrumentation. We worked hard and enjoyed life.
When I retired Rog took over the entire business and continued for many years. A true gentleman and friend. We miss you Rog and our condolences to your family.
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Prayers to all his family and friends. Love the Dilles