Cryptographer, TV reporter, actor, water taxi pilot: What a life West Dundee man lived

Tom Korzeniowski of West Dundee is remembered by his son Michael “as a passionate man who loved what he was doing, no matter what it was.”

And what it was, was a lot.

A man whose career included Air Force cryptographer, TV and radio journalist and actor, Korzeniowski died Feb. 12 at the age of 83 from unexplained complications after a knee replacement surgery.

Korzeniowski's parents died when he was a boy in Detroit. He lived with relatives for a while and then in a boy's home. He joined the Air Force in 1954 at 17 and ended up in Japan.

There, he worked in cryptography, intercepting Russian radio transmissions and decoding them, when “someone realized he had a great voice,” his son said. Tom Korzeniowski started hosting a show on the Far East Network, which broadcast primarily to U.S. forces in Japan, Okinawa, the Philippines, and Guam. His show was followed by one hosted by Jamie Farr, later of “M*A*S*H” fame.

While in Japan, Korzeniowski married Toshie Tanaka in 1956, and she was his wife for 64 years. He earned a lifetime pistol marksman rank from the Air Force and shot on the U.S. Air Force Competition Shooting Team in .22, .38 and .45 caliber pistol matches. He also earned a second-degree black belt in judo at the Kodokan in Tokyo.

He was an actor who appeared in movies such as “The Green Slime” and “Flight from Ashiya,” with Richard Widmark and Yul Brenner. His housing was next to the movie studio, Michael Korzeniowski said, and Widmark and other American actors would hop the fence and join his dad for lunch when they needed a break from another meal of fried rice.

After returning to the U.S., Tom Korzeniowski eventually settled in Michigan, earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Michigan and worked as a radio and TV broadcaster in Detroit. He also earned his pilots license, becoming an accomplished recreational aviator and occasionally flying a crew out to cover a story.

He later transferred to Chicago as a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor at NBC-affiliate WMAQ, also working at WBBM radio, before switching to communications and public relations at a couple of firms.

A lifelong lover of sailing, Korzeniowski moved to Baltimore for a time and earned a 50-ton master captain's license from the Coast Guard so he could become a water taxi pilot. Michael Korzeniowski said his dad told him his love of the water might have come from his great-granduncle, author Joseph Conrad.

While in Baltimore, the acting bug bit again, and Tom Korzeniowski appeared in films “The Replacements” (as Drunk #1) and “Pecker” (as Toupe Man), as well as an episode of “Homicide: Life on the Street.”

Along the way, Korzeniowski found time to earn a master's degree from the University of Chicago. His hobbies, in addition to aviation, sailing and martial arts, included motorcycling, target shooting, firearms, archery, fencing, hunting, SCUBA diving, astronomy, photography, model trains, reading, watching movies, and playing the alto saxophone and piano.

“If he did anything, he researched it, studied it, and he became proficient at it,” Michael Korzeniowski said. “That was his nature.”

Tom Korzeniowski and his wife had two sons and a daughter, in addition to four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

“I look back on his life with fondness, and it hurts, but he has done so many things,” Michael Korzeniowski said. “For him to do what he did, from where he started, I think is quite an accomplishment, and the family recognizes that immensely.”