In Memory of Edward L. Rowny (1917 - 2017)

Founding Honorary Board Member of the AAFKWP; distinguished military officer, ambassador, scholar, and author; undergraduate alumnus of Johns Hopkins University, Class of 1937 and the United States Military Academy at West Point, Class of 1941; Cadet founder of the Kosciuszko Squadron of West Point; alumnus of Yale University, with two Masters' degrees, one in Engineering and the other in International Affairs; alumnus of The American University with a Ph.D. in International Studies; combat service as a battallion commander of the 92nd Infantry Division during the Italian campaign of World War II; combat service on the staff of General Douglas McArthur during the Korean War; combat service in Vietnam; appointed by President Richard Nixon to serve as the representative of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT); continued appointment for SALT-related service under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter; appointment by President Ronald Reagan as his first Chief Negotiator  for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (START) with the rank of Ambassador; Lieutenant General, United States Army; founder of the Rowny-Paderewski Scholarship for The Fund for American Studies; lifelong admirer of Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941), pianist, composer, politician, and statesman of Poland; participant in returning the remains of Paderewski from Washington, DC to free Poland in 1992; author in 1992 of It Takes Two to Tango, being an account of his lengthy service for arms control negotiations; author of his memoir, Smokey Joe and the General; distinguised Polish American par excellence; a role model for the ages in the history of our Republic for his patriotic service to the United States of America. 

In Memory of Barbara R. Blyskal (1938 - 2019)      

Vice President of the AAFKWP; alumna of Hunter College, Class of 1960; teacher, organist and composer of music; General Secretary of the Polish Singers Alliance of America; President of the Jutrzenka Singers Society (NY); Polish-American World Citizen of the Year in 1989; lifelong Polonia cultural activist.  

In Memory of Frances X. Gates (1929 - 2019)

Founding Executive Vice President of the AAFKWP; alumna of Brooklyn College, City University of New York; National Director of the Polish American Congress; member of the Polish Singers Alliance of America; member of the Kosciuszko Foundation, General Pulaski Parade Committee, and Honorary Member of the Association of the Sons of Poland; recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland; lifelong Polonia cultural activist; promoter of polskosc (Polishness) in America; dear friend. 

In Memory of Thaddeus Buczko (1926 - 2021)

Honorary Board Member of the AAFKWP. At age 17 in 1943, he began his undergraduate studies at Norwich University (the oldest private military university in the United States) in Northfield, VT. As WWII progressed, he interrupted his studies to serve as a seaman in the United States Navy, first on the U. S. S. Bearss and finally on the U. S. S. Midway. When the War ended, he returned to Norwich, completed his undergraduate degree, was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U. S. Army and deployed to Korea to serve in the Armored Cavalry as a unit tank commander. After combat service in Korea, he earned his Juris Doctor degree from the Boston University School of Law. Throughout a good part of his entire subsequent civilian career in public service, he also maintained a role in the U. S. Army Reserve, from which he retired as Colonel and Chief of Staff of the 94th Army Reserce Command (ARCOM). From the Salem, MA City Council, to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Salem Postmaster, Massachusetts State Auditor, Associate Justice of the Essex County Probate and Family Court, rising to First Justice in 1986, he was praised universally for his unexcelled competence and humanism, all of which, compelled Norwich University to award him an honorary doctorate degree. In 2016, the restored Probate and Fanily Court Building on Federal Street in Salem was renamed the "Thaddeus Buczko Building" in his honor. An admired icon of Polonia, indeed a wholseome role model of national, state and local public service, he had been a founding member, driving force and benefactor for creation of the John Paul II Foundation that originated in Massachusetts and spread elsewhere, including our nation's capital, and had been a benefactor of the AAFKWP as well. Throughout his public and private life as well, he supported his fellow veterans, including those of the Polish Legion of American Veterans. He had also been an active member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, the oldest chartered (1638) military organization in North America and third oldest in the world.

In Memory of William Edward Serchak (1934 - 2026) 

Honorary Board Member of the AAFKWP. To the credit of his parents (one of whom was of Polish ancestry whereas the other was of Slovakian ancestry) who sensed something about him that by becoming a member of the Boy Scouts of America, would influence him to follow a life engaged with leadership, scholarship, character and service. Validating their decision, he became a member of the Boy Scouts of America in his youth, including time as a Sea Scout and achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. As an adult, he served as Cubmaster, and finally as an Assistant Scoutmaster for his troop in Maryland in which his son Bill also became an Eagle Scout. After graduating from Bristol High School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, he was accepted and won an academic scholarship to the Michigan Technological University where he studied metallurgy for two years. In 1954, he sought an apointment to the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY. During his sophomore year at USMA, he founded the Cadet Astronomy Club, and graduated with the USMA Class of 1958. Concurrently, he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant of Artillery on June 4, 1958. Academically, he went on to earn a Master's Degree in Physics from Tulane University in 1964. His military career spanned 30 years of service that involved assignments overseas in Germany, Korea, Vietnam, Sweden and Switzerland, and in the United States, in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Kansas, Washington, and Maryland. He served as the Assistant Army Attache in the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden (1972-1976) and as the Defense and Army Attache at the U.S. Embassy in Berne, Switzerland (1984-1987). Whereas his primary militaey specialty had been Field Artillery, his secondary specialties had been Atomic Energy and Human Intelligence. On June 30, 1988 he ratired as a full Colonel. He and his wife, Edna Mae (Rice) Serchak, who predeceased him, were the parents of three children. Finally, years earlier to his everlasting credit, he had endowed the USMA Physics and Nuclear Engineering Department for annually granting the W.E Serchak Astronomy Award to a like-minded Cadet who best reflects Colonel Serchak's lifelong interest in understanding the endless universe.