{"id":2114,"date":"2015-07-16T11:35:06","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T11:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/?p=2114"},"modified":"2015-07-16T11:35:06","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T11:35:06","slug":"john-t-senka-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/?p=2114","title":{"rendered":"John T. Senka"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>John T. Senka \u2013 (68) \u2013 of 2282 County Route 50, Wayland, NY (Town of Dansville) died Monday morning (July 13, 2015) at his home, following a Brief illness.<\/p>\n

Born in Weehawken, NJ on July 12, 1947 and was the son of John & Julia (Jurkovic) Senka.\u00a0 He was raised in Arkport when his widowed mother married his stepfather, Joseph Katsur.<\/p>\n

He was a graduate of Arkport Central School (class of 1965). He attended Alfred State College where he met the love of his life, Sandy Nikl.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John served in the US Army Infantry from 1967-1969, including a combat tour of duty in South Vietnam.\u00a0 He received numerous decorations — among them the Combat Infantryman\u2019s Badge, Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Army Commendation for Valor Medal.\u00a0 He was severely wounded in December of 1968.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following his Honorable Discharge, he returned home to marry his college sweetheart, Sandy.\u00a0 They married on November 15, 1969 in Endwell, NY.<\/p>\n

John began his career in the insurance business in 1969 as a debit agent with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.\u00a0 He became manager of the Dansville, NY office.\u00a0 Throughout the years he helped many young men and women get started in insurance careers.<\/p>\n

In 1983, he and his family moved to Montour Falls, NY where he became a Principal\/President of the Senka agency.\u00a0 John loved the insurance business — especially helping families at the time of a loss.\u00a0 He taught insurance classes for many years at Corning Community College in an effort to help young people and to \u201cgive back\u201d to the insurance industry.<\/p>\n

John\u2019s greatest love and proudest achievement was his family — his wife, Sandy and his children, Debbie, Johnny and Jeff along with their spouses and his grandchildren.<\/p>\n

He and Sandy developed \u201cOak Tree Farm\u201d throughout their marriage and spent weekends mowing the meadows and enjoying nature.\u00a0 In 2004, John authored the book \u201cWounded Body-Healing Spirit\u201d which dealt with his combat experiences as well as his struggles with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Clinical Depression.\u00a0 It was an unselfish endeavor to help others.\u00a0 He truly enjoyed helping veterans at the Bath VA Hospital and would often supply them with some of the things that they needed — sometimes as simple as a suitcase in which to carry their clothing.<\/p>\n

John was a spiritual man who believed strongly in God and cherished his personal relationship with Him.\u00a0 He was a member of many service and fraternal groups, including the VFW, American Legion, DAV, Moose and Lions.\u00a0 He served on many boards, including Livingston Mutual Insurance Company, Schuyler County Chamber and St. Joseph\u2019s School Board.\u00a0 In 2012, John was the recipient of the Watkins Glen chamber of Commerce\u2019s Prestigious Catholic Award.\u00a0 He was a Roman Catholic.
\nSurviving are his wife, Sandy; sons, Johnny (Carola) Senka of Arkport and Jeff Senka of Odessa, NY; his daughter, Debbie (Don) Ames of Montour Falls, NY; his sister, Jean (Mike) Howe of Bloomfield, NY; his brothers, Joe (Kim) Katsur of Wayland and Bob (Bonita) Katsur of Wasilla, AK; his grandchildren, Grace Ames, Everett Ames, Ava Senka and Johnny Senka; many nieces, nephews and valued friends.<\/p>\n

The family of John T. Senka will receive friends on Monday from 3:00 PM until 7:00 PM at the Dagon Funeral Home, 38 Church St., Hornell, NY.\u00a0 A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday at 11:00 AM at St. Ann\u2019s Church in Hornell, NY.\u00a0 Burial with full military honors will follow at the Bath VA Cemetery, Bath, NY at 1:00 PM.<\/p>\n

John\u2019s life was, in many ways, about service.\u00a0 He used his time, resources and faith to serve those in need.\u00a0 He would love to inspire others to be of service and make a difference in the life of a family member, friend or stranger, a person, a fellow human being.\u00a0 So, we ask that, in lieu of flowers, you decide where you can best serve the needs of others and do that in honor of John\u2019s spirit of concern and generosity.
\n\u00a0
\nIn honor of John\u2019s military service, the American Flag at the Dagon Funeral Home will be flown at half-staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John T. Senka \u2013 (68) \u2013 of 2282 County Route 50, Wayland, NY (Town of Dansville) died Monday morning (July 13, 2015) at his home, following a Brief illness. Born in Weehawken, NJ on July 12, 1947 and was the son of John & Julia (Jurkovic) Senka.\u00a0 He was raised in Arkport when his widowed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2116,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114\/revisions\/2116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}