Wanda B. Tomczykowska (08/29/1921 - 03/02/2010)

Geographically challenged with unfriendly neighbors and malevolent invaders, Pani Wanda remembered the losses of centuries gone by, as well as the handful of years still smoking around her, as she fervently dismissed the ridicule, slurs and insults, by propagating all the good about Poland,  the romantic bliss and the nostalgic magic of this fatigued land. Poland’s soul is heard in the music of Chopin and Moniuszko; her heart in the words of Kochanowski and Mickiewicz, her head in the discoveries of Kopernik and Sklodowska-Curie. Pani Wanda took all that was denied Poland in the mid 1900’s and brought it to the fore in her adopted land of America.
 
A young widow with a daughter, first living on the East Coast, then on the West, she made time after work at the universities, to weave, over the decades, a remarkable tapestry of friends and associates, who are loyal to her, and her impassioned mission, to this day. The names that come to mind could easily fill a Who’s Who and yet, these stars of Academia and the Arts, sat at her elegant table, eating and laughing and forgetting the troubles that Poland was enduring after World War II; they played their favorite melodies on her piano, as the others sang songs from school days or even before; they rode in her classic convertible car as she showed off the glory of California’s hills and valleys over twisty roads that ended in paradise, allowing them to take the memories of the brilliant skies and the sparkle of the sea to the bleakness which was then, post-communist Poland. Discrimination was rampant still, almost unchanged from a hundred years ago, when Pani Wanda undertook the daunting task of integrating capable, intelligent and ambitious Poles into the work place, on the stage or behind a podium. Many Americans then, and many still do not, know that Poland was once the largest country in Europe, and that her kings, as well as her people, changed the history of the world. Pani Wanda in her own right, has also made a difference. Thanks to her gracious intentions and tenacious efforts, she used the now 41-year old Polish Arts and Culture Foundation as her new “classic car” to drive the message of Polish Pride to a broader audience through booklets, exhibits, and cultural programs, to a more amiable and accepting country and reviving the hope of Freedom for so many defeated countrymen. Lech Walesa and Pope John Paul II are her two heroes.
 
Before the PACF, Pani Wanda handed out fruit and clothing to Displaced Persons arriving in Boston Harbor in 1948, organizing Polish Dance Companies in 1949 and 1957, joining forces with Eisenhower’s People-to-People Program in 1959 by creating a 20-nation company called Dance Around the World. For Polish exhibits in stores, museums, on college campuses or schools, the walls of her home would be stripped of her Polish treasures, just to share them with the community and to teach future generations that the world did not stop at their front gate. Demanding excellence from others, she was even more ruthless with herself. That drive helped San Francisco have the only Lech Walesa Way in the world, a Joseph Conrad Square and innumerable new friends who now treat Poles with the highest regard. The PACF’s annual Polonaise Balls at The Fairmont Hotel’s Gold Room are legendary. The dozens of exhibits over the years at the Main Library, at Stanford and UCBerkeley, have showcased Polish history, music and the arts.

With the generous support of the Beginning Few to the now, several hundred Members, the PACF has endured these four decades, often on  a shoestring, yet is still making plans to lay the cornerstone for the eventual Polish Cultural Center of the Pacific. This ambitious dream needs to become a reality soon. The PACF inventory ( nine thousand books, four hundred posters, dozens of crates of archival material, paintings, sculptures, folk craft and embroidered regional costumes)  needs a permanent home. Pani Wanda was of a generation of doers and dreamers. It is our challenge to see this plan manifest. Working closely together with a select few like-minded organizations around the US, this concept is not an impossibility. It could be we only need to adopt Pani Wanda’s mind set and just get it done, rather than discuss it for years, as is the tendency. Our forefathers demand it and our grandchildren deserve it. Globalization is upon us and with it, nationality and cultural identity could be dissolved.
 
What Pani Wanda sacrificed in her private life for this Polish Cause matches the many sacrifices and obstacles of her compatriots, a sacrifice that cannot be ignored. The numerous Medals and Diplomas of Recognition Pani Wanda has received are tangible symbols of gratitude, reminders of the work, the vision, and the magnificent obsession from which we all have benefited. An elegant lady who loved to travel and was more adventurous than she looked, lived with style and panache, through good times and bad,  retired, due to poor health, to Krakow, Poland, not far from her beloved Wawel Hill, where another historical Wanda made a difference too.
 
In Krakow, on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 Pani Wanda finally succumbed to the ravages of old age and illness to  Rest in Peace.
She is survived by her grieving daughter Caria, loving grandchildren Remy, Dariana and Sebastian Szykier and great-granddaughters Hennessy and Lillian. She was predeceased by Caria's daughter Andria and son Damien.
 
There will be a Memorial Mass and Celebration of Life in San Francisco in late March and then in mid-April in Warsaw and Krakow.
 
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to
The Polish Arts and Culture Foundation
477 Waterhouse Road, Oakland, CA
www.polishculturesf.org