Departed

Andrzej Beck (1926 - 2011)

The Pilsudski Institute feels sad at the passing of Andrzej Beck on July 20, 2011.  Andrzej Beck was born in 1926 in Warsaw. In 1939 he left Poland for the United States. In 1944-1946 joined the Polish army in Scotland, completed officer’s training in 1945 and served in a anti-tank artillery regiment. After returning to USA in 1946, he graduated from Rutgers University. He was Chief engineer of Waterbury Farrel (from 1958) and its Vice President. From 1983 he was a president of Eastport Trading in Cheshire, CT.

For over 40 years Andrzej Beck was active in the Institute as member of the Board of Directors and for six years its president from 1993 to 1999, thereafter remaining as vice president until 2008. We will be for ever grateful for his support and leadership in many of the Institute's activities. We will remember him as a sophisticated diplomat and  leader of the Institute.

Andrzej Beck was always greatly concerned about Poland’s fate and closely followed all the political developments in his native country.  We are grateful for the service he rendered to Pilsudski Institute.

Stanislaw Milewski, MD (1930 - 2011)

Dr. Stanislaw Milewski, a former vice president and member of the Honorary Legion and the Board member of the Pilsudski Institute died on June 8, 2011. Eminent ophthalmologist and surgeon retinologist, professor at the University of Connecticut. During the war in 1940 his family was deported to Siberia. He got out of Siberia in 1942, with the Army of general Anders, via Iran. He studied in Palestine, England and Ireland. In 1959 he emigrated to the United States.

With his wife Anita he established the annual Milewski Lecture in Polish Studies at Central Connecticut State University and the Milewski Scholarship Fund at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City. He served as Past President of the Polish American Congress of Connecticut, Trustee Emeritus of the Kosciuszko Foundation, Past Vice-President of the Pilsudski Institute, Member of the Polish American Foundation of Connecticut, Member of the Polish Cultural Club of Hartford, and Sponsor of the Committee for the Blind of Poland in New York. He received the Connecticut Honorary Immigrant Day Award from the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut in 2001 and the Medal of Merit given by the S.A. Blejwas Endowed Chair of Polish and Polish American Studies, Central Connecticut State University in 2009.

He was awarded the Cavalier Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland by the President of Poland in 1996 for his involvement in teaching and lecturing at many Polish medical schools and for organizing donations worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in surgical equipment. The Mayor of Bydgoszcz presented him with the Mayor’s Medal in 1997 for his specific contributions to the University of Bydgoszcz.

Dr. Milewski was a member of the several American medical organizations.  In October 2001 he received the Honorary Membership in the Polish Ophthalmological Society.
He presented many scientific papers at international, national, and local ophthalmology meetings and had multiple publications in international and American ophthalmology journals. He co-authored four ophthalmology textbooks, which were translated into several languages and distributed worldwide.

We will remember Stanislaw Milewski as benefactor, community worker,  Polish  patriot and great supporter of the Institute.

PARTNERZY
Ministerstwo Kultury
Biblioteka Narodowa
Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych
Konsulat RP w NY
Fundacja na rzecz Dziedzictwa Narodowego
PSFCU
NYC Department of Cultural Affairs