Winifred Mary Kuk

Winifred M. Kuk, 95, of Ottawa Hills, died Friday, June 3, 2022, in ProMedica Ebeid Hospice in Sylvania following a brief battle with brain cancer. Born in 1927 in Newport, Wales, she survived the Great Depression, the bombing of her town by the Nazis in World War II, and the death of her mother when she was only 13. She helped her father tend to her younger brothers until taking a job in the kitchen of a hotel in Southend-on-Sea when she was 15. She later took a clerical job at Spectator Sports, Ltd., in London.

She emigrated to the United States in 1956, living briefly in Jackson, Mich., until relocating to Chicago, where she worked in the executive offices of Material Services. She married Ukrainian immigrant Zenon Kuk in 1963, and their union produced a son, Yarko.

They lived in Chicago’s Ukrainian village until moving to Athens, Ohio, in 1969 when Zenon took a teaching position at Ohio University. In 1975 they moved to Ottawa Hills when Zenon was recruited to start a Slavic languages program in the foreign languages department at the University of Toledo. He died in 2000.

Winifred was active in the Mothers’ Study Group at Ottawa Hills elementary school in the 1970s and the University Women’s Commission in the 1980s. She worked as an accountant in general accounting and the controller’s office at UT from 1981 until retiring in 2004, at the age of 77. Since the late 1990s she enjoyed multiple trips to the United Kingdom to visit her many relatives, plus a pair of month-long journeys across much of Europe.

In February 2002 she decided to accompany her son to the Daytona 500, and got bit by the NASCAR bug. She subsequently joined him at dozens of NASCAR races, including annual trips to Daytona every February and Bristol, Tennessee every fall. These trips, and visiting with her newly acquired racing family each time, became highlights of her year.

Winifred loved to cook and bake, and happily plied her neighbors with homemade cookies at Christmas time and fresh baked babka at Easter. She loved weekly visits to various Metroparks in and around Toledo, especially Oak Openings, Wildwood, Side Cut, Howard Marsh, and Middlegrounds. Having grown up on the Bristol channel in Wales, she had an affinity to being by the water and relished trips to Florida and Lakeside Marblehead as well as day long road trips across Ohio and Michigan. Her sense of adventure was indefatigable.

Poor vision early in life limited her ability to drive, but Winifred maintained a very active lifestyle, walking to the University, Westgate, and other neighborhood locations well into her late 80s, when a back injury required surgery and forced her to start using a cane.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Alice and Edward, siblings James, Doreen, Terry, John, Michael, Edward, and Alice. In addition to her son, she is survived by her sister Theresa, brother Brian (Lorraine), and many cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Visitation will be on Tuesday, June 7, 2022, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Walker Funeral Home, 5155 W. Sylvania Ave., Toledo, OH. A Funeral Mass will be held on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, at 11 a.m. at Gesu Catholic Church, 2049 Parkside Blvd., Toledo, OH. Interment will follow at Toledo Memorial Park. The family requests any contributions be made in her name to the Metroparks Toledo Foundation online at https://metroparkstoledofoundation.org/ways-to-give/ or by mail, 5100 W Central Avenue, Suite A, Toledo, Ohio 43615.