Budzilowicz, Frank B.

The S.S. Caledonia was built in 1904 for the Anchor Line and changed to a troop ship in 1914. It was sunk Dec. 4, 1916 by an enemy submarine in the Mediterranean Sea.

Budzilowicz, Frank B.
(Dec. 21, 1921 - Oct. 4, 2007)
It took a long time to add the name of Frank Budzilowicz to the census of Bridgeport, across the Schuylkill River from Norristown, Pennsylvania. Although the first one to bear the name arrived in the winter of 1914 and stayed there until he died May 24, 1979, the census taker of 1920, who was unfamiliar with Polish names, left a mess for the most part the names of the 35 persons from Poland in Bridgeport at the time. For example, Wisniewski and Tarlecki are written Wismeski and Tarbecka, respectively. God knows how he spelled Budzilowicz. Although it was Budzilowicz in the 1930 census, Ancestry.com indexed it Budzilonier.
The name is not very common in Poland. Derived from the Polish word bud, which means "to feel secure," the first Budzilowicz in Bridgeport, who landed in New York on the S. S. Caledonia, February 2, 1914, from Glasgow, Scotland, had five children with Mary Sahaydak, whom he married when the United States was at war with Germany. These were Stephanie, Frank, Bertha, Mieczyslaw (Mitchell), and Wanda. Both husband and wife worked in the carpet mill of James Lees and Sons in Bridgeport.
On April 13, 1944, three years after graduation from Bridgeport High School, the younger Frank Budzilowicz joined the U. S. Navy. It's surprising that his work at PT Base 17 on the island of Samar, in the Philippines, isn't better known. As a MoMM 3/c he repaired and serviced PT boats that performed invaluable service and fought at closer ranges than any other combat craft. Nobody can forget the PT boat that a young Naval officer, John F. Kennedy, later president of the United States, commanded in the Pacific. Following the defeat of Japan, Budzilowicz was ordered to strip the motor torpedo boats at Samar of all useful equipment. Then he did all he could in November and December 1945 to drag 106 PT boats up to the beach at Samar and burn them to ashes.
After his discharge on April 24, 1946, he was a millwright at the Alan Wood rolling mill, Ivy Rock, a mile west of Conshohocken, along the Schuylkill River. At one time the company employed as many as 3,500 workers. They formed United Steel Workers of America Local 1392. Because it was cheaper, America began to buy its steel from Japan. By the 1960s, steel prices began to drop and the company laid off hundreds of workers. When he was laid off, Budzilowicz, who worked for Alan Wood Steel Company 25 years, got a job as a maintenance man for Regina Nursing Home.
He belonged to two Polish churches, first Sacred Heart in Swedesburg, which his parents attended until their deaths, not far from the family home at 254 Hurst Street in Bridgeport, and St. Mary's in Conshohocken, where a Catholic funeral Mass was celebrated after his death. He was buried in St. Benedict Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, Estelle D. Novak, and four children -- Paul J. Budzilowicz of Phoenixville; Frank M. Budzilowicz of Ocean City, New Jersey, where he liked to go fishing and crabbing; Carol Budzilowicz of Conshohocken; and Ann Souder of Malvern -- a brother, Mitchell, of Coleston; 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
From: Edward Pinkowski (2008)