New Link 2011 - Association of Polish Engineers in Canada

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2 1/2011ASSOCIATIONOF POLISH ENGINEERSIN CANADASpis treści70 Years of SIP Page 2Historia Stowarzyszenia Inżynierów Polskichw Kanadzie Page 4Współpraca SIPwK z Polską Page 5SIP Presidents Page 6Founded in 1941Incorporated in 1944Board of DirectorsPresident Hieronim TeresińskiVice President Kazimierz BabiarzNew Link Editor Sławomir BasiukiewiczJerzy BulikSecretary Janusz MajerskiDeputy Secretary Zbigniew BalkowskiTreasurer Andrzej WojtalaMembership Mariusz KalisiakCultural eventsand Finance Jan CylkeDeputy Treasurer Gienadij MakarewiczDeputy Memb. Ryszard MurynowiczGrzegorz TautTeleconferencing Maria ŚwiętorzeckaWebmaster Zbigniew PieciulEditorial CommitteeSławomir Basiukiewicz, Jerzy Bulik,Jan Jekiełek, Krystyna Sroczyńska,Maria ŚwiętorzeckaHead Office206 Beverley StreetToronto, Ontario M5T 1Z3Tel.: 416-486-7346www.polisheng.caBranchesEDMONTON, ABMarek Kucmierz, Tel.: (780) 720-8094HAMILTON, ONRyszard Murynowicz,Tel.: (519) 751-3403KITCHENER, ONJerzy Bulik, Tel.: (519) 747-1402LONDON, ONBartłomiej Froncisz,labatron@execulink.comMISSISSAUGA, ONSławomir Basiukiewicz,Tel.: (905) 602-5814MONTREAL, QCLech Biliński, Tel.: (514) 996-9723OTTAWA, ONBogdan Gajewski,Tel.: (613) 259-5015TORONTO, ONKrystyna Sroczyńska,Tel: (416) 486-7346Pierwszy komputer powstał w Kanadzie Page 7Inżynierska hierarchia wartości Page 8A Brief History of Professional Engineering Page 10Z nadzieją w złoty wiek inżynierii Page 1370 Years of SIPAssociation of Polish Engineers in Canada was founded 70 yearsago, in 1941, by a group of 29 Polish engineers, who arrived inCanada to fight for victory of the Allies, dedicating to this greatcause and to this land their patriotism, efforts and enthusiasm, theirprofessional knowledge and experience. Their wisdom and abilityto see things in longer perspective led them to creation of our Association.We owe them respect and gratefulness, which we shouldexpress especially today.It does not mean that before their arrival there were no Polish engineersin Canada. The best known and the most famous amongthem is Sir Kazimierz Stanislaus Gzowski, who entered Canada from the US exactly 100years before the founders of our Association, in 1841. Many roads, railways and bridges insouthern Ontario were built by him. His activity was not limited to the area of civil engineering.He was a cofounder of Toronto Stock Exchange, he was the first Commissioner ofthe Niagara Parks Commission and he also served as acting Lieutenant Governor of Ontariofrom 1896 to 1897.As I mentioned Sir Kazimierz Stanislaus Gzowski was not the only Polish engineerin Canada before 1941, the year when our Association was founded. There were others beforeand after him. However those who were here before World War II did not organize themselvesinto an Association, most likely because a kind of critical mass was not achieved: there wasno sufficient and determined number of people at one place at one time. Our Association isthe first professional organization of Polish engineers in Canada. As such, it accepts an obligation,resulting from this fact, to represent all engineers of Polish descent: those of the pastand those of the present time, those who are our members and those who are not our members.People who choose the engineering profession share not only an interest in mathematics,physics, chemistry and other areas of science but they also share a passion to applytheoretical knowledge in real life, to create new reality. Let’s mention just a few examples ofinventions in technology, implemented and developed by engineers, which have dramaticallychanged peoples’ lives and created entirely new sociological and cultural environment on ourMother Earth. Things like car, aircraft, radio, television, computer, ultrasound imaging, plasticand isotope materials, space ships and many others, the list goes on and on. Not all engineersare given possibilities to contribute to these spectacular technological achievements,but all of them, as a result of their work, leave certain marks, sometimes only short lived,sometimes more permanent ones. Polish engineers arriving in Canada, similarly as all otherengineers, worked at various places, at various positions, and some of them were lucky to
1/2011find themselves in places and conditions enablingthem to make significant contributionsto various areas of Canadian technology, industry,architecture, education, and others. Atleast some of their achievements deserve tobe mentioned at today’s jubilee.The majority of Polish engineers, arrivingin Canada during and just after the war,were specialists in the area of aircraft technology.So, naturally their contribution wasmade to aircraft industry. Such projects asnew version of wooden fighter Mosquito, aircraftsBeaver and Chipmunk, and a jewel ofpost-war Canadian aircraft industry, supersonicjetfighter Avro Arrow, were designedand implemented in significant degree by Polishengineers; some outstanding members ofthis fairly numerous group were: Błachut, W.Brzozowski, W. Czerwiński, W. Jakimiuk,and E. Kosko.Stepping down from sky to earth wemay see around us, here in Toronto, manycivil engineering projects, which have Polishhands on them: Eaton Center (L. Alejski), CNTower (A.Rozwadowski), Gardiner Expressway,Yonge Street Subway Line (W.Wyszkowski), several campuses of communitycolleges as well as several buildings ofUofT.Speaking about institutions ofhigher education it is worthwhile to mentionthat Polish engineers who arrived during andafter World War II organized some departmentsof technology at Canadian universities,for example: Aeronautical Departments atUofT (G. A. Mokrzycki).It should be also mentioned now thatCanadian School of Management wasfounded by a Polish scientist Jerzy Korey-Krzeczowski.Polish immigrants were not only organizersof certain areas of studies at Canadianuniversities, they were simultaneouslyoutstanding academics, whose achievementshave been recognized not only in Canada butalso outside our country (G. Glinka and R.Varin – UofW, J. Lipkowski –UofG); some ofthem hold Canada research Chairs (J. Lipkowski.UofG, J. Pawliszyn, UofW).It should be also noticed that therehas been a kind of export of Polish engineersfrom Canada to the US. To illustrate it I willmention only two of them. MieczysławBekker, who after several years of work inCanada, accepted a post at GM, where he designedand built a lunar rover vehicle, absolutelyinstrumental and critical piece ofequipments for Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions.Another one in this group and a morerecent case is Ryszard Malinowski, who aftera few years of work in Canada accepted a postat Intel and now is one of the vice presidentsof this world class corporation.Polish engineers have been activeand successful not only in the areas of technology,education, managements, administrationsand some others but they have been alsoactive in other organizations, “delivering”presidents to such organizations like CanadianPolish Congress (S. Orłowski, A. Garlicki),Association of Polish Combatants (A.Garlicki) as well as Professional Engineers ofOntario (W. K. Bilanski)Contributions made by some of Polishengineers were so significant that a few ofthem were awarded Order of Canada (A. Garlicki).I presented to you only some out ofmany outstanding accomplishments of Polishengineers in Canada. However we should beaware that it is only the tip of an iceberg,There were and there are many engineers ofPolish descent in Canada very successful intheir profession and there were and there aremany, who are not generals but just officers,simply medium level employees and managersin industry, in research and educationalinstitutions as well as owners of dozens ofprivate businesses of various sizes. Theirgood work, innovative spirit, initiative andentrepreneurship have comprised an importantcontribution to our common house, calledCanada.The Association whose 70th anniversarywe celebrate today has been a kindof silent partner and ally for many of thesepeople, for their activities and for their successes.It has operated in the background,sometimes not very visible, nevertheless itssignificance not only for Polish engineers butfor the whole Polish community in Canadaand in this way for various areas of life ofCanadians has been absolutely essential.Many individual achievements could nevertake place if there were no favourable conditionscreated by the Association for contacts,cooperation and mutual help among people,and if there were no various forms of supportavailable from the Association. Obviously theneeds of Polish engineering community werechanging over the years and synchronouslywith them main accents and directions of theAssociation programs and actions werechanging as well. In the 40-ies and in the 50-ies the most important thing was to helpnewly arriving engineers to improve or evento learn the language, to find work and to helpthem accommodate to Canadian society. Suchneeds practically disappeared during the lastfew decades. They have been replaced bynew directions and forms of activity and newprograms. One of them arose when after the3collapse of communism Poland joined thefamily of democratic free countries. It was developingcooperation between engineers andscientists in the area of technology fromPoland and Canada, which was realized byCommittee for Technological Cooperationwith Poland created by our Association. Withtime passing, new problems and new challengeshave appeared. Nuclear versus renewableenergy, combustion versus electricalengines for cars, replacing traditional materialsby new composite materials, etc. The Associationtakes part in looking for solutionsfor essential problems of facing today’s technologyby organizing conferences, wheresuch hot topics are presented and discussedby most knowledgeable and experienced professionalsfrom Canada and from Poland.This flexibility and responsivenessto changing conditions, needs and tasks,which has been demonstrated over the yearsby the Association is a source of strength ofour organization and we look with confidenceand optimism to its future.A shape, a character of each organizationis defined formally by various legaldocuments like its constitution, bylaws, rules,etc. However, practically the critical factor,which decides about failures and successes oforganization are people who work for it. TheAssociation was lucky that during its wholeexistence, just from the very beginning, fromthe moment of its foundation, it was awardedby many gifted and dedicated people. Peoplewho at various levels of the organization heldpositions, like presidents, secretaries, treasurers,people, who were members of variousbodies like Boards of Directors, EditorialBoards, committees, etc. Volunteers, who devotedtheir talents and their time to the Association,to realization of its programs and itsactions. People, who, by their work for theAssociation, helped other people and workedfor the communities. Without their dedicatedservice, without their hard work, work -which was performed in parallel with theirfamily and professional duties – the Associationwould not be able to play such an importantrole on the Canadian scene, as it hassuccessfully done over the years. All of usowe them, activists of the Association, respectand thanks, which they very much deserve.The result of their work is 70 yearsof outstanding service of the Association forPolish Engineers, for Polish community, forCanada and for Poland. Congratulating thisimpressive jubilee we wish the Associationfor the years to come becoming continuouslymore valuable part of Canadian landscape ofsocial and professional communities.Jerzy Bulik
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New Link 2011 - Association of Polish Engineers in Canada

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