Antanas Stapulionis Obituary

Antanas "Tony" Remvidas Stapulionis passed away on Monday, July 28, 2025. He was born to Ursula and Antanas Stapulionis on Sept. 11, 1931, in Plunge, Lithuania.

He fled his home in 1941 at the age of 10 along with his parents, brother and sister in an effort to escape the war being fought between Russia and Germany for control of Lithuania. They spent the war in a worker camp in Germany. When the war ended, Venezuela accepted his family as refugees and in 1947 they immigrated to Caracas. Tony earned an electrical engineering degree from the University of Caracas in 1958, then came to the United States in 1959 to receive a master's degree from Carnegie Mellon. He became a U.S. citizen in 1976.

Tony worked for many years at the Voice of Music Corp. (VM) in Benton Harbor engineering record players and obtained two patents for the company. It was there that he met a beautiful accounting clerk with a southern drawl named Sandra, who ended up becoming his life partner for 61 years. When VM closed, Tony took a job at Whirlpool Corp. where he worked until his retirement in 1997. Post retirement, Tony worked on his master gardener certification, cooked and served at the soup kitchen, and traveled with his adventurous wife. Tony spent many hours perfecting his lawn and flower beds and cursing the bunnies and deer who thought it was a buffet.

Tony is survived by his wife, Sandra and his sister, Angela Stapulionis de Martinez, as well as many beloved nieces and nephews in Venezuela. Tony and Sandra have four children: L. Maria (Peter) Ruffner, Sean (Heidi) Stapulionis, Laura (Jim) Richards and Tanya (Gerry) Fenrich. Their 14 grandchildren include: Bethany, Tate, Nate, Ben, Maddie, Stephen, Jordan, Alyssa, Alexander, Crow, Joel, Abigail, Murran and John. They also have six great-grandchildren: Antanas, Josefina, Sophia, Luke, Juliette and Jayden.

Tony was preceded in death by his father, Antanas, his mother, Ursula and his brother, Bronius.

Visitation with Tony's family will take place from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 2, at the Starks and Menchinger Chapel, 2650 Niles Road, St. Joseph, MI 49085. A celebration of life service will take place at noon on Sunday, Aug. 3, at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Tony's name can be made out to Corewell Health Hospice and Palliative Care. Feel free to share a memory with the family on their online guest book at www.starks-menchinger.com.