Michael Skapura

Michael Skapura passed into eternal rest peacefully, surrounded by family, due to complications of pneumonia brought on by COVID-19. Born in the coal- mining town of Coy Junction, Pennsylvania in 1926, and raised in Homer City, he married the love of his life, Dorothy Markle, in 1949, after being honorably discharged from the US Air Force at the end of World War II. Together, they settled in Murrysville to raise their family. They retired to Melbourne, Florida, in 1994, where they remained until their health began to decline in 2014, when both he and Dorothy returned to Pittsburgh to be closer to family.

A husband of 69 years, father of three, and grandfather to two, he is survived by his three children, David, Christopher, and Lance, their wives Darlene and Wendy, and grandchildren Danielle and Devin. He was also a “father-in-love” to Marsha “George” Higbee, who, together with her husband and three children, form the entirety of his extended family. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Dorothy, his parents, Joseph, and Katherine Skapura, and his six older siblings, Mary, John, Joe, Katherine, Steve, and Anne.

A devoted husband and father, his greatest joy in life was his family and friends, and he was always trying to make things better, or extend a helping hand, to anyone who needed it. Because of his passion for life, and at his request, his body was to be donated to The Humanity Gifts Registry of Pennsylvania, to further the education of future health care professionals and medical research, but due to the COVID infection, it was instead donated to the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Make-A-Wish® Foundation of Greater Pennsylvania and West Virginia, a charity that he admired for its dedication to granting life-changing wishes to children with critical illnesses, at: https://secure2.wish.org/site/SPageServer? pagename=donate_today&chid=100-000&designation=008-000.

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