Robert J. Dzurka, 67, was an avid golfer

Robert "Bob" "Pop-Pop" Joseph Dzurka, 67, of New Milford, died March 4, 2010, at Yale-New Haven Hospital following a three-week battle with abdominal cancer.

Mr. Dzurka was born in June of 1942, in Bridgeport, to Laura (Zinko) and Joseph Francis Dzurka.

He grew up in an Eastern European immigrant neighborhood in Bridgeport. His father worked as a jack of all trades and his mother was a caterer to wealthy clients in Fairfield.

The family lived simply with no car and a coal-burning stove and furnace.

In the 1950s, the family bought a small black and white TV, which launched Mr. Dzurka's lifelong love of the Yankees. He idolized Mickey Mantle and Thurman Munson.

After attending Fairfield Prep, Mr. Dzurka entered the University of Connecticut, where he earned a bachelor's degree in engineering.

Mr. Dzurka worked as a mechanical engineer. Throughout his career, he worked for Merv Blank and Associates, Amhac, Carey and Walsh, and Andron Construction in New York, from where he retired. He had also run his own solar company, Sunergy Mechanical.

He loved his family. He was married for 33 years to Angela (Terlizzi), originally from Orsara, Foggia, Italy, and had four children and three grandchildren.

Sports were a big part of his life. He coached his sons' soccer, baseball and basketball teams, where they excelled, and he made lifelong friends.

Mr. Dzurka was an avid golfer and won local tournaments with his son, Jon.

He also had a green thumb. His plantings with his children and grandchildren led them to enter their vegetables and flowers into competitions at the Bridgewater Fair to win ribbons.

Mr. Dzurka loved to have fun and travel. He took photographs at London Bridge, played blackjack in Las Vegas, climbed Mayan ruins in Belize, watched wild dolphins in the Bahamas, stood atop Blowing Rock in North Carolina and biked along the dunes in Cape Cod.

Perhaps his favorite place was Port Royal Golf Course in Bermuda, where his ashes will be brought.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Dzurka is survived by three sons, Jonathan, Jason and Christopher; a daughter, Kirsten; three grandchildren, Sydney, Fisher and Robert; and above all, his oversized brown dog, Bud.

The Lillis Funeral Home of New Milford was in charge of arrangements.