Obituary of Marek Biernacki-Poray

Marek Victor Biernacki-Poray, a longtime resident of Montclair, died on December 5 at Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, New Jersey, a few hours short of his 66th birthday.

Marek was born on December 6, 1958, at Mountainside Hospital to Wladyslaw and Zosia Biernacki-Poray. He attended Montclair public schools until high school and graduated from Newark Academy in Livingston in 1978. He earned his undergraduate degree and an M.B.A. from New York University in 1982 and 1984, respectively. In January 1988 he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, the result of an arteriovenous malformation, which left him disabled for the rest of his life. He lived in Montclair until 2010, when he moved to Universal Institute Rehab in Livingston. At the time of his death, he was a resident of Morristown Post-Acute Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.

Marek was an avid basketball player from childhood until his cerebral hemorrhage occurred. He spoke several languages, had a keen mind, a calm demeanor, a dry sense of humor, and was unfailingly generous. He was a man of faith who regularly attended mass at Immaculate Conception in Montclair and at the Salvatorian Fathers Monastery in Verona, and a proud Polish-American who loved his family and all their dogs—five succeeding boxers, each named Ducat.

Marek is survived by his sisters, Renia Biernacki-Poray (Timothy Catchings, MD) and Krystyna Poray Goddu, his niece Anna Poray Staniczenko (Phillip), nephew Jack Goddu and great-nephew Raphael Staniczenko. He was predeceased by his grandparents, Dr. Mikolaj and Stefania Balicki, and his parents.

Visitation will be held at the Moriarty Funeral Home at 76 Park Street on Tuesday, December 17, from 5-7 pm. The funeral mass will take place at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, 30 North Fullerton Avenue, on December 18 at 10 a.m. He will be interred at the cemetery of The National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where his grandparents and parents are buried, which was designed by his father in the 1960s.