Cecilia Gomolka

Cecilia Gomolka (née Brennan), age 95, formerly of Broomall, PA, died peacefully at home with family by her side in Glenmoore, PA on March 9, 2023. 

Ceil was born in Philadelphia, PA and graduated from Hallahan Catholic Girls High School.  After graduation, she attended Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing (PGH) where she graduated as an R.N. in 1947. 

While in nursing school, Ceil met her loving husband, Gene, and they married in 1948.  They raised their six children in various locations on the east coast of the United States due to Gene’s 20-year career with the U.S. Geological Survey Commission, eventually settling in Broomall, PA in 1964, where the family established deep roots and made many friends while members of the St. Pius X Church community.

Cecilia was very proud of her nursing career and loved to regale her visiting hospice nurses with cherished memories of her nurses’ training at PGH.  Ceil worked intermittently as a nurse after graduation until she began assisting Gene in the late 1960s with the family business, a franchise of Fun Services, Inc., conducting corporate fundraisers and providing the Santa’s Secret Shop Fundraising Program to over 1,500 schools in PA, VA, MD, DE, and WV. 

While raising the family, Ceil pursued various hobbies including gardening in the family greenhouse, sewing, furniture reupholstering and refinishing, and she was an active member of the St. Pius X Church Sodality.

Upon retirement in 1989, Ceil and Gene resided in Rehoboth Beach, DE and Naples, FL, where Ceil became a member of the Red Hats & Purple Dresses Society and crafted handmade vintage-type dolls with the Naples Doll Club.  She also bowled and played bridge.  She developed deep and lasting friendships in Naples, and enjoyed spending time with her sisters, Theresa and Jane, and their husbands, who lived close-by.  Old friends from Broomall were frequent visitors to Naples, where they enjoyed boating, partying, and singing at the family home while Gene played his keyboard.  Children and grandchildren were fortunate to spend such meaningful time with them at their “happy places” over the years.  They returned to Pennsylvania in 2003.

Ceil was predeceased by her husband of 72 years, Eugene, in 2020.

She is survived by her children, Maureen (Jane) Richardson, Carl Gomolka (Suzanne), Marleen (Susie) Smith, Steve Gomolka (Judy), JoAnne Lichman, and Jean Marie Frank (Joel); her brother, Dr. Jim Brennan and her sister, Jane (Brennan) Johnston; her 19 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren; as well as numerous nieces and nephews, whom she loved dearly. 

Services and internment will be private. 

The family would be grateful if in lieu of flowers, donations in her memory be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital www.stjude.org.