POREMBA, MICHAEL J. (11 Dec. 1908-2 Aug. 1998) was a stained glass window maker whose masterpiece was the windows he made for the Meyers Chapel in the United Methodist Church of the Saviour in CLEVELAND HEIGHTS. He was born in Cleveland to John Poremba, an assembler, and Mary (Chormy) Poremba. Poremba attended city school through the eighth grade and subsequently worked in factories before being employed by American Mirror and Art Glass. The owner of this firm taught him many phases of the glass industry. Poremba left the firm because he felt the owner unfairly fired an employee. He started his own business, Grand Avenue Glass Service, with his wife Florence. In the 1940s, the shop became known as United-Art Glass and Mirror Co. In the 1950s, Poremba opened the Poremba Stained Glass Studio in WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Oh.
After a Catholic archbishop West Virginia took a liking to his work, Poremba designed and produced the windows for St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church in Wheeling, W.Va., and other Catholic churches in that state. Cleveland churches that contain Poremba's work include St. Patrick Catholic in West Park, and Our Lady of Czestochowa on Cleveland's East Side. For more than fifty years Poremba was a member of the Stained Glass Association of America. He became a fellow of the organization in 1986.
In 1933, Poremba married Florence Majoros and they had three children: Ralph, Frances, and Fred. Poremba died in MAPLE HEIGHTS and is buried in All Souls Cemetery in Chardon.