Former Batavia alderman Kalina dies at 94

Robert J. Kalina was a world traveler, but it was Batavia he loved the best.

“A lot of it had to do with the (Fox) river,” said his daughter, Donna Koladycz. “He loved the river.”

The man fished it, swam it, hunted clams and crabs in it and camped by it. In the summer, he would start work at 2 a.m., three hours earlier than the rest of the staff, so as to be finished by 10 a.m. so he could go fishing.

Kalina, 94, died Friday.

He worked in the family business, Sykora Greenhouse, for 40 years, buying it from his grandfather along with an uncle. They sold it in the early 1970s to the people who turned it in to Shady Hill Gardens.

For many years, the glass greenhouses were heated by a coal-fired boiler, which had an 85-foot chimney. Kalina would climb that chimney, just to have a look at the whole town he loved, said Koladycz.

After selling the business, he went to work for friend Art Swanson, the former mayor, at Swanson's Hardware in downtown Batavia. He also worked for Hines Lumber.

Kalina was a 2nd Ward alderman from 1962 to 1968, and also served on the Batavia Plan Commission for five years.

He and his late wife also traveled the world, particularly Mexico and Central America. At one point, their car was commandeered by soldiers during a war in Guatemala, while they were driving from Mexico to the Panama Canal.

Kalina was a longtime member of the Batavia Historical Society, and recorded oral histories for it. “He also loved the sound of his own voice,” said daughter Patricia McMillan, laughing, recalling how he'd tell the family about how the greenhouse grew strawberries during the Depression, what he did during World War II, and how much anything used to cost back when.

“He was a character,” said Koladycz.

Visitation for Kalina is from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Moss Family Funeral Home, 209 S. Batavia Ave., Batavia. The funeral service is at 10 a.m. Friday at the funeral home.

Memorial donations may be made to the Batavia Historical Society.