Bronislaw T Wisniowski

DR. BRONISLAW THEODORE WISNIOWSKI died after brief illness at the White Plains Hospital on Sunday, June 29, 2008. He was born in Vienna in 1916 and spent his youth in a small town of Stanis?awow in Galicja, Poland, now Ukraine, where his father, Dr. Leon Ordover was a well-know physician. The Holocaust claimed his parents and two beloved younger brothers.

He studied Humanities, which remained one of his passions for the rest of his life, at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and then at the London School of Economics. He also attended the University of Lwow where he pursued further studies in the Humanities and in English Literature and completed his studies at the University of ?od?, Poland, where he received a doctorate in English Literature having written a thesis on Galsworthy.

His refusal to join the Communist Party, motivated as it was by his deeply held democratic and humanitarian beliefs, did not sit well with the authorities and affected his academic career in Poland but, ultimately, led him to the United States. He first visited the United States in the late 1950s as a Ford Foundation Scholar and gathered material for his book, "Faulkner, Hemingway, Steinbeck," published in 1960, which was the first scholarly study of the leading American writers in Polish. It became a bestseller. Unfortunately, his next book, "The History of American Literature of the 20th Century," was canned a few weeks before it was to be sent to the printer and sent him into exile. The Ministry of Education gave him a small stipend to go to England to research a monograph on Galsworthy with the hope that he will not return. He did not. After a few months in London and in Vienna he found his way again to the United States in 1964.

His beginnings in the United States were not auspicious but a stint as a salesman at the famous Doubleday store on Fifth Avenue enabled him to catch up on his readings. Soon, however, he benefited from the boom in higher education and found a job as a Professor of English Literature at Riker College in Houlton, Maine. In 1966, he moved to the Pleasantville Campus of Pace College, now Pace University. Dr. Wisniowski taught English and American Literature as well as Communications. He became one of the most popular teachers on the Pleasantville campus and whose courses were always presubscribed and oversubscribed, despite the fact that he did not believe in grade inflation. He devoted endless hours to preparing his classes on Shakespeare and on the great American and European writers and to assiduously correcting student papers. His courses introduced thousands of students to the glories of the written word and the beauties of poetry. His devotion to his craft and to the students was richly repaid. He graced the cover of the Pace Bulletin, received the prestigious Kenan Award for Excellence in Teaching, and most importantly, hundreds of thank you letters and notes from students whose lives have been touched by his love of learning, literature, and humanistic vision.

At Pace, he also met Ms. Janet Mottola, who has been his steady and loving companion for the past 42 years. He spent these years in White Plains, which he never ceased to admire, and became famous for his long walks and smiles that he bestowed on every child that passed him by. He often went to Mullinos, where the staff invariably greeted him as "the Professor," which he remained till his last days.

He is survived by his son, Dr. Janusz A. Ordover, his daughter-in-law, Lori L. Ordover, of New Canaan, CT, his two granddaughters, Liana and Fern, of West Stockbridge, and his companion, Janet Mottola. He was predeceased by his former wife, Halina Wisniowska of Warsaw, Poland.