Neil Hartigan with Ms. Urbanska and Nancy Pelosi
The Windy City rolled out the red carpet to celebrate what amounted to “Jan Karski Week,” with events coordinated by Georgetown’s John Carroll Alumni Weekend (JCAW) planners and Chicago’s Polish Consul General Zygmunt Matynia together with leaders of the Jan Karski US Centennial Campaign.
Coming on the heels of President Obama’s April 23 announcement that Jan Karski would soon receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the New York celebration of Jan Karski Day, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn recognized the outstanding work of the Jan Karski US Centennial Campaign represented by director Wanda Urbanska at the JCAW mixer at the Art Institute of Chicago on April 27.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi were in attendance, along with former Lt. Governor Neil Hartigan. Karski Centennial Campaign Steering Committee members Rom Poplawski and Anthony Paduano mingled with guests, among them John Forgach, Nick Poplawski, Jane Lepauw, Julie Jones, Deroy Murdock and Aldrinana Leung. “In New York you celebrated Jan Karski Day,” said Rom Poplawski. “Here in Chicago, we’re making a whole week of it!”
Georgetown University partnered with Polish Consul General Matynia on a memorable Karski program on the afternoon of April 28, featuring Steering Committee member Robert L. Billingsley as emcee and Karski biographer Tom Wood as speaker. Noreen Brand, director of education for the Illinois Holocaust Museum, and Ms. Urbanska also addressed the overflow audience which included Minority Leader Pelosi; Paul Pelosi; Georgetown University’s chairman of the board and former Commissioner of the National Football League Paul Tagliabue; Frank Spula, president of the Polish American Congress; Steering Committee member Leonard Kniffel of the American Library Association; Aldona Salska of the Polish American Librarians Association (a Campaign partner) and Gary Kenzer, executive director of the Polish American Association. Bozena Nowicka McLees represented Loyola University of Chicago. Jan Kallmorgen, a political analyst from Berlin, Germany, was also in attendance.
Governor Quinn rearranged his schedule to appear at the event, and made an impassioned, impromptu speech about his former professor, outlining Karski’s life story and his wide influence. Governor Quinn also spoke knowledgeably and glowingly about Poland’s contributions to the world stage and the importance of “Polonia” in the state of Illinois.
Senator Dick Durbin (also a former Karski student) keynoted a luncheon gathering earlier that day in which he described Karski’s outsize influence on everyone he touched at Georgetown and beyond.
During her time in Chicago, Ms. Urbanska also attended meetings with representatives of the Polish American Congress (a Campaign partner), the Polish American Association and the American Library Association.
Photos below (left to right) top row: Bob Billingsley addresses the group, with Ms. Urbanska and speaker Tom Wood; the audience, which included Consul General Matynia with Mrs. Bozena Matynia in the front row and Nancy Pelosi and Julie Jones behind them; Neil Hartigan with Ms. Urbanska and Nancy Pelosi; Nick Poplawski, Aldrinana Leung, Julie Jones, Rom Poplawski;third row: Consul General Matynia with Ms. Urbanska; second row: John Forgach with Anthony Paduano; Ms. Urbanska with Gov. Quinn
