Sigmund Joseph Gucfa

Sometime in September of 1938 in Buffalo, New York, Sigmund Jacob Gucfa, and his wife, Jane (born Jane Kubala) had precious and beautiful magic within them. The planets must’ve been aligned that entire month because 9 months later on Saturday, June 3rd, 1939, their first son, Sigmund Joseph (Zygmunt Josef) was welcomed into their Polish family. Six years later, Sigmund's 1st younger brother, Cornelius (Neil) (September 16th, 1945 to 12-2024) and 2nd younger brother, Michael (1949-1967) were born.

Sigmund received his education from a Catholic school named St. John Kanty Prepatory. After graduating, he and his girlfriend, Jeannie Sagy (Jean Marie Sagy (Sayjee) got married. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany when Jeannie moved to California with her parents. After 2 1/2 years, Sigmund returned to California where he was reunited with Jeannie and their first child, Sigmund John.

Sigmund worked as a Los Angeles sheriff while Jeannie was taking care of their baby. Eventually, they moved to Cypress, 10 miles east of Disneyland, from Torrance at the Pacific Ocean and they had 3 more children. He also worked as a foreman for a company named Serek that unloaded trains of various products onto trucks driven to Sears department stores to stock their shelves.

Eventually, Sigmund started working for his brother-in-law, John Modaffari, in his real estate company, Cannon Realty. At that time, Sigmund adopted the nickname "Ziggy." He was an outstanding salesman and continued to do quite well selling homes in Cypress as well as other real estate ventures. Eventually, Ziggy left real estate and was hired at The Home Depot in Fullerton. After a few years, Ziggy was made “Employee of the Year." When that announcement was made in a store meeting, Ziggy was shocked, stunned and surprised as he had no idea it would ever be him!

He transferred within The Home Depot to San Diego and worked in their Santee store designing custom kitchen plans and selling major appliances to their customers. Ziggy became quite known for being a huge Buffalo Bills fan as well as being very proud to be Polish, too. The enormous business he brought in rivaled 2 neighboring Home Depot stores combined in that same area.

While being retired, in September of 2019, Ziggy moved to Apache Junction, Arizona to live with his 3rd son, Scotty, and his daughter-in-law, Sara, for 8 months. Afterward, Ziggy moved into a wonderful assisted-living home in Mesa and he lived there for 5 years until Tuesday, January 7th, 2025 when he received his angel’s wings at 12:30 a.m. as he passed away while he was sleeping.

Ziggy will continue to live within the hearts of his 3 living children: Stephen Gucfa (1961), Scotty Gustafski (1963) and his wife, Sara, and Stephanie (1967) and her husband, Glenn Petris. Ziggy was blessed in having 7 grandchildren from Stephen (Christina, Stephen ll and Alexandra) Scotty (Chloe and Shandi) and Stephanie (Ivan and Hunter) as well as having great-grandchildren born from his grandchildren as well.