Subj: Lucjan Chwalkowski
Date: Monday, January 9, 2012 3:27:48 PM
From: Chwals, Walter J. -- [email protected]
To: Edward Pinkowski -- [email protected]To Whom it may concern:
I recently read the account of Edward Pinkowski regarding Lucjan Chwalkowski.
Lucjan Chwalkowski was my uncle. My father, Walter, was the youngest member of the family (born June 4, 1905). The family lived on the Lower East Side of New York since arriving in 1910. Everyone worked to make ends meet. My father delivered milk (horse-drawn milk truck) during high school. He was the first member of the family to go to college, earning a BA degree in Accounting from New York University in 1928 (while working at the NYSE during the day to support the family). The family later moved to Plainfield, NJ. Dad's older siblings, Walenty (Lucjan's older brother) and his two older sisters, Frania and May, all married and began their families.
After graduation, Dad began working for the United States Rubber Company and shortened our family name from Chwalkowski to Chwals on the advice of senior colleagues who thought that Chwalkowski was too difficult to pronounce correctly. Dad had a great 40+ year career at the United States Rubber Company, advancing to a leadership position in the company prior to his retirement in 1968. In early 1948, he met my mother, Wanda Guterch, at the Kosciuszko Foundation ball and they were married later that year. I was born in 1949 and my sister, Kathie, in 1951.
We were provided with a wonderful Polish upbringing and an excellent education. Though he insisted that we speak English at home (Mom and he would speak Polish when they didn't want us to understand), Dad was always adamantly loyal to and stridently proud of our Polish culture and heritage. We were frequently reminded of Lucjan's sacrifice for Poland. In our home, we still have the four medals which he was awarded, among them the Polish Virtuti Militari and the French Legion of Honor.
After the College of the Holy Cross, I returned to Poland where I met my wife, Alicja, learned to speak Polish, and was educated in Medicine at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where I now teach each year as a visiting lecturer. Our children, Kaya and Konrad, both speak Polish fluently, without an accent (having learned from their mother since childhood). I, on the other hand, speak Polish with a slight, but charming, American accent.
Please feel free to use any of this information as you see fit. If there is any further interest, please let me know and I will try to help with additional information.
Best regards,
Walter J. Chwals
Walter J. Chwals, M.D.
FACS, FCCM, FAAP
Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics
Tufts University School of Medicine
Surgeon-in-Chief
Floating Hospital for Children
Director of Trauma
Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Institute
Division of Pediatric Surgery800 Washington Street, #344
Boston, Massachusetts 02111
T 617-636-5025
F 617-636-8122
[email protected]
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[email protected]From: Walter J. Chwals (January 9, 2012)