St. Hedwig's School, June 1960 eigth grade dratuating class

From the Evening Observer, May 30, 1991, photo submitted by Danny S. McGill of Dunkirk

St. Hedwig’s was a grade school in Dunkirk, New York, a few blocks from my grandparents’ home on Roberts Road.

By row: Sister Severia, Nancy (Komada) Kostran, Bonnie (Sikora) Kawski, Marcia (Kucmierz) Henderson, Thomas Guziec, Walter Lemiszki, John Tofil;
Dave Debeck, Joe Skubis, Jr., Ed Mikula, Dennis Bialaszewski, Andrew Pnka, Jim Halas;
Janet (Halas) Fadale, Carol (Domanski) Greenough, Mary Jane (Wysocki) Palmatier, Audrey (Wilemski) McGill, Ardene (Wilemski) Lesch, Elain (Powlowski) O’Brocta;
Dan Polowy, Fred Szary, Ken Drag, Jerry Wilemski, Robert Henderson, Ken Mazurek.

My father was the only child of Walter and Sophie Stuczynski, born Jerome Walter Stuczynski (confirmation name Stanislaus).  His nickname as a child was “Stuka” (after the German dive-bomber), “Fuzzy” in high school, and “Smitty” in the Army.

Drafted, he took basic training at Fort Dix, just missing the last plane at the end of the Korean Conflict.  His area of training was “Guerilla Warfare”.  He was then stationed at West Point for two years, staying in the same barracks Elvis Presley had a few weeks earlier.  He was promoted in one weekend from Private to Corporal in order to qualify as staff for the Officer’s Club, where he did the books and was a bartender.

My mother, born Audrey Ann Wysocki, married my father in Dunkirk New York on April 7th.  A snowstorm delayed leaving for their honeymoon in Washington, DC.  While my father was stationed at West Point, she was a clerk on base and lived with my father near the base.  She also worked for a time at a grocery store, possibly an A&P, in Dunkirk.  This she blamed for problems with her legs later in life.

In 1967, my brother was adopted, them myself in 1969.  We lived on Suzette Drive in Cheektowaga, NY and on my fourth birthday we moved to Bellwood Avenue in Depew, three blocks from Polish Falcons.

Uncle Eddy was head of aintenance for a chain of bakeries in Buffalo, NY, and Aunt Helen worked at Al Cohen’s bakery.  I remember this mostly because we had a seemingly endless supply of their bread bags.  They lived for as long as I knew them on the East Side and belonged to Queen of Peace parish.

Edward Stortz served in the Navy during WWII, aboard a vessel that only lost one crew member — a submarine surfaced and strafed their ship and killed the captain, in the Hudson river no less.  I do not belive the incident was ever made public.

The oldest son, he became the man of the house at 17 when his father died, delivering milk to the steel plant workers (collecting five cents at the end of the week from them, being told to keep the change).  He later worked on the railroad between Dunkirk and the Pennsylvania line, but spent most of his life until retirement at Allegheny Ludlum.  Although he smoked for many years (having quit before my recollection) and had the regular “shot-n-a-beer”, he lived into his 70s and the scar tissue in his lungs was determined to be occupational in cause.

He met my grandmother, Sophie Szopinski, at a Sunday picnic on Arkwright Hill.  Her only known employment was a month or two each year for a number of years picking concord grapes at harvest.

They lived nearly all their married life in her father’s house on Robert’s road, where she had been born in the downstairs bedroom.  The house was built in the mid-to-late 19th Century across the road from it’s present location (moved manually near the turn of the century) .  They had only one child, my father, Jerome Walter Stuczynski, who was born upstairs.  The kitchen cabinetry was built by my father and grandfather from plywood scavenged as extras off railroad loads.  Though they considered it a weed, which I was commissioned to pull at length as a child, Jumping-Jacks are a treasured symbol of my memroies of their home.

My Dad, Jerome W. Stuczynski, was in the drum corps for the 4th Ward Fire Department — “the Merry Men” — and its leader was Helen’s brother Bill Cybulski.

Helen and Stanley Szopinski’s three sons (Edward, Danny and Theodore) all were married and all died early of cancer. Edward and Danny (maybe even Theodore) were in the Navy. Danny’s son (Danny, Jr.) was (or maybe still is) an attorney for the City of Dunkirk.

Joe Stuczynski & Ron Stuczynski

My uncle Joe as I remembered him used to drive a bright red station wagon, and seeing me and my grandfather (his brother) taking a walk, stopped it in the middle of the residential side street, blocking the road. His wife died years ago, and he remarried. I met his new wife, who had amazingly warm and gentle eyes, and last I know was living in a retirement complex on Main Street in Dunkirk, NY.

I also knew that he owned a farm that eventually was passed to his son, who then moved to Florida. I was on this small farm on at least one occassion, helping dig up a few potatoes, and I remember grapevine strunk along the back row. It was a small farm next to a railroad track, but I’m not sure exactly where in Dunkirk or the Town of Sheridan, NY it is.

What I didn’t know was that this farm was not a business really and that uncle Joe was not a farmer afterall. While working at Allegheny Ludlum, he owned a TV repair shop.

His son Ron owned a gas station. I had been there once or twice, and I believe it was a Sunoco, and it was located just off the Dunkirk thruway exit to the left on route 60. It’s no longer a gas station today.

Bernice & Steve Korwin

Bernice Stuczynski, daughter of Bernice and Julian Stuczynski, married Steve Korwin (changed from Korzeniewski). He owned a restaurant in Niagara Falls, then had a business dealing with break pads.

Her second husband had a career in the Marines, and they ended up living in San Diego, with at least one son and two grandsons.

Richard Stuczynski

My grandfather’s brother Stanley married Mary Bak (B?k) and was one of the owners of the fishing boats Mary S and the Mary S II.

Their son Richard “Dickie” Stuczynski owned the convenience store in Fedonia, New York. After he retired a few years ago and moved to the Southewest, and his son Richard Stuczynski Jr. took over, the store was no longer a Convenient Food Mart and is currently the Fredonia Food Mart.

Richard and his wife have children a little older than my daughter.

Jerome Stuczynski & Ken Stuczynski

My Dad and I both have experience as business owners.

When my father left Shuman Plastics, he had a difficuly time finding work because his resume was a bit intimidating. No one could afford him, so in late 1991 he partnered with two people who had also worked for Shuman Plastics previously, Alan Braunstein and Myron Cascio. They formed JAM Plastics Grinding, Inc., a post-industrial recycling and brokering firm in the secondary market, located in Buffalo, New York.

When oil was at a major low and the market for plastics crashed, too many customers went out of business, causing JAM to close as well. Alan left and the remaining partners founded Phantom Plastics (after Phantom of the Opera), which was able to retain JAM’s employees for a while longer, but the market didn’t lift in time, closing in 1999.

Also around that time, I partnered with my Dad in a company called DAKCOR, Inc., but apart from manufacturing a prototype invention for spraying and flagging lines, we never took on any viable projects. It was more of a hopeful concept company.

Also at that time, I started Iron Circle with a partner David Moerler. I was the money end and he was operations. In late 1994, we started with a flea market stand and a mail order catalog for martial arts supplies and cutlery. Soon after, we opened the Iron Circle Martial Arts Supply and Knife Shop — a one-and-a-half room store on Seneca Street in South Buffalo.

Robbed blind by partner and friends, I took it over altogether with my later-to-be wife and we made it work until getting bad legal advice regarding incorporation. That, and I was tired of not spending more time with loved ones. We closed it around 1996.

After Phantom Plastics closed (I was in the warehouse at JAM and worked in sales/procurement for both JAM and Phantom), I went full-time with my recently formed Internet business, having established myself by building sites for community and non-profit organizations. Within a couple years, I became one of the top 25 web development firms in Western New York, and still run that business currently.

Re: Tadeusz Kieszczynski
Dear Sir / Madam:

The above-named was in the Air Force over here during the last war. In 1948 he emigrated to the U.S.A. and in April, 1948, the Polish Air Force Association had his address as yours {Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY}.

He was born in 1921, was Polish, and intended to join a couple i BUffalo after the war, which he appeared to have done.

I was friendly with him for several years, and now that I am in the last part of my life (I am 85), would love to know that he was happy & had had a good like in the U.S.A.. (of course, he may not still be alive.)

Would it be possible that you know of his wherabouts, or could you find out where I could get the information? I have been happily married for 56 years, but lost my husband last August, so have plenty of time to think about the past. Tadeusz was my first love & I will never forget him.

I would be so grateful of an early reply to this letter, — it would mean a lot to me.

Sincerely,

Sybil Foard (Mn)

E1 Hatfield Court
Salisbury Road, Hove, Sussex
England BN33AA

Walter Sopinski worked for the Dunkirk, NY parks department, and was the first person in the city to use a gas-powered lawnmower — I have the news clipping somewhere. Typical of most people with their professions versus homelife, rumor is that his own garden was a bit of a mess. He was sometimes known as “The Kaiser” because of his appearance, mustashe and all, and perhaps his strictness as a father.

He owned a house on Roberts Road where both my grandmother and father were born, and my father’s parents lived in until they went to a nursing home around 1992. It was in the family for nearly a century, but was another generation or two older, having been moved by hand (a LOT of hands) from across the street where it originally stood.

Walter died before I was born, and so I never knew him, although I beleive when I was young I met my great-grandmother a few times.