Michael Urban Widman

Michael Urban Widman, 85, passed away on February 20, 2020, in Jacksonville, FL. He was born to Eula and Urban Widman in Blue Island, Illinois in 1934. He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in mechanical engineering, moving to Columbus, OH and joining and making his mark on the venerable Battelle Memorial Institute.  He met his OSU Buckeye wife of 54 years and started a family. An avid sailor and boatbuilder, he pursued a successful career in engineering until hanging up office life and heading to Florida to build a gaff-rigged schooner, followed by skiffs, dinghies, cabins, fine furniture, hammocks, antique car restoration, winemaking, wood carving, painting, ceramic throwing, barbershop singing, Chinese food cooking, and anything else that caught his interest. Instilled with a love of life and keen intellectual curiosity, he relished a project and a challenge, and every challenge, project or repair was completed to an expert level of perfection. A true Renaissance man, genius inventor and designer, his “projects” now sail the oceans and are on display in museums. He never met a stranger and over the years, he built a wide net of friends, colleagues and students from his three decades in the Duval County Public Schools, car clubs, barbershop choirs, his neighbors in Westminster Woods, and his faith family at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. He will be remembered by all for his sense of humor and his attentive care to friends and family, especially his wife, Dorothy. But most of all, he will be remembered by his children and grandchildren as a loving and wonderful father who enlisted their aid in all his projects, encouraged them to adventure, nurtured their creativity, and took great pride in their accomplishments.

He is preceded in death by his wife, Dorothy, and survived by his children Carolyn Widman (Richard Noonan), Michael F. Widman (Lisa), and Margaret Dees (Robert) as well as three wonderful and much-loved granddaughters, Courtney, Vivian, and Lilah.

A funeral mass will be held Saturday, March 7 ^th at 2:30 p.m. at the Historic Church of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 4124 Loretto Road, Jacksonville, FL 32258. A wake reception will follow at Mandarin Community Club, 12447 Mandarin Road, Jacksonville, FL 32223. A memorial service and reception for his friends and neighbors at Westminster Woods will be held Sunday, March 8 ^th at 1:30 p.m. in the auditorium at Westminster Woods.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in his memory to The Divine Mercy House, www.divinemercyhouse.org , St. Joseph’s Catholic Church or to the Brooks Rehab College of Healthcare Sciences at Jacksonville University’s communication sciences disorder program, www.ju.edu/give .