Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
During World War II, Army Capt. Charles Troia supervised battlefield burial, first in North Africa and then in Europe.
With the soldiers assigned to him and the German prisoners of war who labored with them, Troia opened or expanded four European cemeteries and buried more than 40,000 troops from all nations, his family said.
After the war, Troia became a funeral director.
“We feel it was his calling,” said Troia's son, Charles S. “Chuck” Troia Jr. of Omaha.
Charles S. Troia Sr. died Thursday at Bergan Mercy Medical Center, said his daughter, Nellie M. Polityka of Omaha. He was 93 and died of complications of pneumonia after a lengthy illness, she said.
Troia Sr. graduated from Creighton University and began medical school. He dropped out when a burn on his arm became infected, and he fell behind in his studies, his children said.
So Troia Sr. and cousin Anthony Troia became funeral directors. They owned and operated Troia Funeral Home on South 13th Street for 30 years.
The cousins sold the business in 1978.
Charles Troia and his wife, Nadja, moved to Las Vegas that year. He stayed on even after the death of Nadja, the Latvian woman he had met and married in Europe during the war.
He returned to Omaha in 2006, said Polityka.
Other survivors include four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Services for Charles Troia will be at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Gerald Catholic Church, 96th and Q Streets.
Contact the writer:
444-1165, sue.truax@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
