By Lauren FitzPatrick
Staff writer
There was a lot of love for David Barzowski in Chicago’s Mount Greenwood community.
Seems that he accepted people for what they were without judgment, and they loved him right back.
The founder of the Born-N-Razed softball team liked to live like there was no tomorrow.
“He worked hard, and he played very hard,” said his mother, Carolyn. “That’s what did him in.”
Mr. Barzowski died suddenly Oct. 23. His mother said he went to sleep and didn’t wake up. He was 33.
“Barzo,” as everyone called him, was born and raised in Mount Greenwood and took great pride in his birthplace. One day he hoped to create a sort of Born-N-Razed club to do community and charity work in Mount Greenwood.
“He was like the mayor of Mount Greenwood” because of that special way he had with everyone, Carolyn Barzowski said. “He just seemed to identify with anybody.”
Still single at 33, he became the great organizer.
He started the Born-N-Razed softball team and played in many charity tournaments. The players ripped the sleeves off plain cotton T-shirts and wrote their Mount Greenwood addresses on the backs instead of names and numbers.
He also played in St. Christina’s men’s “Holy Name” league and would sometimes travel out of state with the Father Perez Knights of Columbus team.
It wasn’t any great love of softball in particular; he just loved to get together with friends, represent Mount Greenwood and have a good time, his mother said.
He also threw an annual July 4th bash in the park, complete with games, a parade and deep-fried turkeys.
It was his way of showing appreciation for his friends.
Born June 6, 1971, Mr. Barzowski spent his life in Mount Greenwood, save for weekend jaunts to New Orleans or Louisville for the Kentucky Derby.
He attended St. Christina’s grammar school, and after graduating from Marist High School, he started classes to become a heating repairman. But the union bug bit him, and he followed in his father’s footsteps as an iron worker. He ended up with Local 1.
“He loved being an ironworker,” his mother said. She said his union buddies told great stories at the funeral.
One iron worker told her he would call the union each morning for his work assignment and would get stuck with less than stellar jobs. The voice on the line would reassure him: “It’s not so bad because Barzo’s going to be there.”
He lived in the moment, his mother said — to the point that he forgot her birthday.
“I had sworn that time, ‘I’m not talking to him again,” she said.
But no one could stay mad at Barzo.
“He just had that grin, and he had that way of saying, ‘Yeah, yeah, I
know,’ ” she said.
He liked so much to live for the day that his mother worried about his future. She said she would sometimes nag him about saving money.
“Iron workers work hard, and they don’t last real long,” Carolyn Barzowski said.
But her son told her with a smile not to worry.
“Oh, I’m not going to live that long,” he would say.
Mr. Barzowski is survived by his mother, his brothers Donald, Edward and Timothy; his sister, Karen Hannigan; and many nieces, nephews, teammates and friends.
Arrangements were by Blake-Lamb Funeral Home, (708) 636-1671.
Lauren FitzPatrick may be reached at lfitzpatrick@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5964.
