Obituary of Audrey Ilene Pollari

Audrey Ilene Pollari (1929-2023) Boise, Idaho - Audrey Pollari, 94, died peacefully at her home on April 20, 2023, after a fall, diagnosis, and precipitous decline due to AML. She was born in Superior, Wisconsin, to Olga Johnson Bustrak and John Bustrak, and grew up in the rural township of Brule in Northern Wisconsin with her brother, Lawrence.

Audrey was preceded in death by her husband, Calvin; son, David; daughter, Lynette; and brother, Lawrence.

Surviving immediate family members include her daughter, Linda, of Los Angeles, California; son, Donald; daughter-in-law, Shanna; and granddaughter, Lauren, of Duluth, Minnesota (until very recently Boise, Idaho).

Audrey graduated from the N.P Johnson Elementary School, in Douglas County, Wisconsin, in 1942, and graduated from Waino High School, Brule, Wisconsin, in 1946, with eleven classmates. As a single woman she started college in 1946 and received a Bachelor of Science from the State Teachers College, Superior, Wisconsin, in 1950. While attending college, she also completed a Medical Technology Course at The Swedish Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota and became a Member of American Society of Medical Technologists in 1950. Audrey actively and proudly practiced as an ASCP Registered Medical Technologist, Registry of Medical Technologies, American Society of Clinical Pathologists, from 1950 to1969 with annual renewals of certification. At that time, the work of medical technologists combined current professions of phlebotomy, medical laboratory science, and aspects of nursing.

Audrey married Calvin Theodore Pollari on October 17, 1953. They spent 42 years together until Calvin’s untimely death due to genetic ALS in 1995, which left Audrey as a very active widow for 28 years. Her children remember Audrey as a revolutionary doer, a person of action and leadership whose favorite saying was “s---t or get off the pot.” She was unconscious of class barriers and extremely social, constantly befriending and helping people of all ages, races, beliefs, and walks of life. Her progressive values and worldview were far ahead of her time and, even, current times. Audrey was formidably capable, organized, and hard working. While working professionally as a medical technologist, she masterfully raised her children with unconditional support, guidance, and presence throughout their lives. While being a successful professional and homemaker, she created a rare work-life balance in her family’s life, with regional family camping and fishing trips in the summer and alpine skiing in the winter, including wonderful ski trips to the American Rockies during Christmas vacations. The family spent every weekend together throughout each child’s graduation from high school and departure from the family home. The summer family camping trips expanded from regional to include National Monuments, Parks, Preserves, Recreational Areas, and Historic Sites. Over several years the family had visited most of the spectacular National Parks and Preserves of the American West and Canadian Rockies. Besides being a traveler Audrey was an amateur naturalist. During park hikes, she, and everyone else, stopped to studiously read every information placard and faithfully attended every possible park ranger campfire talk. Audrey was also an avid birder and fisherman. She wanted to see and understand everything. When her children Donald and David were in high school, Audrey was a chaperone for several high school class trips to Washington, D.C. and unique trips to Haiti and Honduras where she was joined as a chaperone by her daughter Linda, then in college. When Calvin retired, he and Audrey spent several seasons as campground hosts in Arches National Park. After becoming a widow, Audrey began to travel internationally extensively, which culminated in her final fondly described “bucket list” trips with her daughter, Linda, on Viking Cruises to Russia (2014), Germany, Austria, and Hungary (2015), and China (2016). She took 11 flights to, during, and back home on her last trip (to China) at the age of 87, many on her own! Audrey was an athlete throughout her life, playing basketball during high school, then golfing, bowling, cycling, and alpine/nordic/water skiing until her age and the enormous wear and tear on her joints finally limited her physical activities in her very late 80’s. She ended up as a “bionic” woman, with two artificial knees, two artificial hips, and one artificial shoulder. Audrey’s stamina and physical force allowed her to successfully rehabilitate after each of these surgeries through her final (second, same) hip replacement when she was 84 years old. It’s not easy to sum up Audrey’s life; the tremendous depth and breadth of what she achieved and experienced cannot be condensed. From growing up and working very hard on a family dairy farm with no running water during the Great Depression, she explored the world on jet planes and joined her family and friends for Sunday “Family Zooms” on her iPad right up until her death. It was as fulsome and fine a life as anyone could hope for and, we feel, the best death that anyone can hope for, in her own home, surrounded and loved by her family.

Friends and family:  Please join Audrey’s remaining children, Linda and Don, and Don’s wife, Shanna, and their daughter, Lauren, at the Enchanted Inn, Gordon, Wisconsin, on Saturday, July 29, 2023, for pizza, salad, and open bar 5:00-7:00pm! Our family enjoyed driving past farmlands from Whitefish Lake to the Enchanted Inn for pizza many times, over many years. Please sign-up (tickets) on this Eventbrite link so that we have a guest list, and the Enchanted Inn can prepare for our guests. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebration-of-audrey-pollaris-life-tickets-641396974617, or  contact Linda Pollari directly at linda@pxsarchitecture.com.