Joseph Stanley Wnukowski
Social services officer
Born Sept. 17, 1915, Philadelphia (PA), U.S.; son of Stanley and Sophia (Jaworska); married Regina (Szygiel); children: Stanley, Teresa, Joseph, Regina, Krysia, Lawrence, Francis, Martin, Marie.
Education: Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), 1939, Master of Arts (M.A.), 1950, Catholic University of America, Bachelor of Laws (B.LL.), Southeastern University, 1942, Washington (DC).
Career: director, Friendship House, Washington, 1939-43; field representative, WRS-NCWC, East Africa, 1943-46; director, Orphan's Project, Catholic Committee for Refugees, New York City, 1946-52; director, Intake, 1952-59, Children's Institute, 1959-72, commissioner, Department of Welfare, 1972-76, Philadelphia; Retired.
Author: Sun Without Warmth (novel), 1966.
Member of: co-founder, past president, Polish Heritage Society, Philadelphia; American Council of Polish Culture (A.C.P.C.) (president, 1970); Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (P.I.A.S.A.).
Honors: Pilgrim's Cross, Patriarch of Jerusalem, 1943; Haller's Swords, Polish Army Veterans Association - Stowarzyszenie Weteranow Armii Polskiej (S.W.A.P.), 1972; Order of Polonia Restituta, Polish Government in Exile, London (United Kingdom), 1972.
Affiliation: Democrat. Roman Catholic.
Languages: English, Polish.
Hobbies: reading.
From: "Who's Who in Polish America" 1st Edition 1996-1997, Boleslaw Wierzbianski editor; Bicentennial Publishing Corporation, New York, NY, 1996.
Wnukowski FamilyIn the year 1976 the Wnukowskis ( Joseph Stanley and Regina nee Szygiel) celebrated thirty-two years of wedded bliss, Regina and Joe having met and married in the Polish Refugee Settiement of Tengeru-Arusha, Tanganyika, now Tanzania. They have nine chiidren: Stas, born in Africa, Teresa, Joseph Thaddeus, Regina Marie, Krysia, Larry, Franky, Marty and Marie Rosaire. The first five are married, and the Wnukowskis have eight grandchildren: Stas four (John, Joseph and Francis, twins, and Krysia); Teresa's two (Jerry and Donna Mak); and Regina Marie's two (Marie and Christie Coniey).
Regina was born in August—w, Poland in 1925. Joe was born in Philadelphia in 1915. "Sun Without Warmth", a documentary novel of Polish slave labor in Siberia -- authored by Joe -- is essentially the story of Regina's exile to Russia.
The rest of her story Regina has written herself in the annals of Philadelphia's Polonia. Running a home and rearing nine children would more than tax any woman, but Regina was born with boundless energy, and to the edification of all she always made time to be helpful in her artistic, cool and indefatigable way to any request made of her.
Regina's home was the cradle for many Pol-Am ventures, and her hospitality crowned many a Pol-Am organization experience.
Never one to seek the limelight, Regina took her satisfactions from seeing each affair and occasion come to it successful conclusion. Tennyson once wrote: "They also serve who only stand and wait." One wonders what Tennyson might have said had he seen this human dynamo, Regina Szygiel-Wnukowski, at work.
Joe says it all when he describes Regina as "The diamond I discovered in an African mine."
Source: resume (1976)