Clement Alexander Skalski, 89, of Venice, Florida, passed away peacefully at his home on October 8, 2025.  Clem was a son of the late Clement V. Skalski, Honorary Consul of Portugal in Warsaw, Poland, and Jadwiga Zeniewska Skalski.  Born in Poland, Clem lived in France and Brazil before his family settled in Scarsdale, New York in the early 1940s.  He earned electrical engineering degrees through the PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cornell University, Columbia University and Northeastern University.  Clem was a systems engineer who specialized in control systems, including for elevators and, early in his career, for magnetic levitation trains for the Federal Railroad Administration.  He was an inventor, obtaining 32 patents, and was a registered professional engineer.  He was a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of INCOSE, Sigma Xi, and Phi Kappa Phi.  Clem also served in the United States Army as a First Lieutenant in the Signal Corps. 

Clem met his wife in Cambridge, Massachusetts, through one of the world’s first computer dating services run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and they eventually settled in Avon, Connecticut where they raised their two sons.  He enjoyed spending time with his family at their beach house on Cape Cod and participating in his sons’ camping and scouting activities.  Clem was an incredible handyman who loved to tinker and fix things and he tackled it all with great aplomb, including installing his own patented contactless ignition system in his cars. Clem will be remembered for his kindness, deep intellect, and unwavering dedication to his family.  Clem was predeceased by his brother Victor Skalski and half-sister Yvonne Niox.  Clem is survived by his wife of 58 years, Suzanne Gilman Skalski, his sons Michael (Suzanne) Skalski and Philip (Stacy) Skalski, two grandchildren Sarah Skalski and John Skalski, a sister Yolande Lynch, and many other family and friends.  A celebration of life will be held for family and friends at Good Shepard Episcopal Church in Venice on Saturday, November 8, 2025 at 2:00 p.m.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Parkinson’s research, Family Promise of South Sarasota County or Good Shepherd Episcopal Church.