Obituary of John A. Lengyel

John Lengyel was a man of faith and a loving, husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather.

He retired as a senior vice president of Mellon Bank, Pittsburgh, with 37 years of service. He held senior management positions in most of the major departments of the bank and had primary responsibility for multi-million-dollar automation and workflow re-engineering projects that significantly improved the operating efficiency of the bank. He is a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking - Rutgers University and the American Institute of Banking in Pittsburgh.

He retired at age 56 giving the explanation that he felt that it was” pay back” time, but he was the first to tell you he really didn’t know what that meant. Looking back over the last 32 years of retirement he now knows. Serving in all aspects of parish ministries during those years, serving his previous community on the Board of the Homeowners Association and the Board of the Golf Club for 6 years, 2 years as Chairman of the Board of the Palms in Sebring, a continuing care retirement community, guiding the re-structuring of their debt saving the home for 200 residents and jobs for 200 employees. He was invested into the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in 1994 and served as Section Representative for the Diocese of Venice for 8 years. But most rewarding, he, and his wife Maureen, spent 17 years organizing and coordinating pilgrimages to the Holy Land for both the Diocese of Venice and the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepluchre of Jerusalem. He was awarded the Silver Palm of Jerusalem for his work in the order and with the pilgrimage ministry. He retired from this ministry in February 2013 after making a pilgrimage that year. In 2019, he took his last pilgrimage along with a group from the Diocese of Venice.

He has been a daily mass attendant for most of his retirement years.

If we could ask him now why he retired early, he would say that he believes the Holy Spirit had something to do with it.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00AM on Monday, April 15, 2024 at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, 1301 Center Road in Venice.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, P.O. Box 29086, Washington, DC 20017-9086 or www.ffhl.org.