Originally published February 6, 2015
By Lisa Y. Garibay
UTEP News Service
Protégés refer to him as “a walking institution,” colleagues call him “brilliant” and friends say, “He is a hero.” But most people know him as Tony.
Longtime political science Professor Z. Anthony “Tony” Kruszewski, Ph.D., officially retired on Jan. 15 after 50 years of teaching, 46 of which were spent at The University of Texas at El Paso. The University celebrated his service during a reception on Jan. 29, which was attended by more than 100 guests – a small representation of the multitudes whose lives he has touched, including an estimated 15,000 students who have gone on to blaze their own trails as lawyers, judges, politicians and educators.
President Diana Natalicio shared in the celebration of this remarkable man, who was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1928 and worked as a spy for the Polish Resistance against the Nazis by his teens.
“I don’t know anyone who has a more eclectic network than Tony Kruszewski,” she said while surveying the wide range of professions, organizations and generations represented at the retirement reception.
After his service with the Resistance movement, Kruszewski fought for the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, then in the Polish Army in 1945. The U.S. accepted Kruszewski as a permanent resident due to his war veteran status and he immigrated to Chicago in 1952 with $51 in his pocket.
Surviving the occupation of his country and the horrors of WW II imbued Kruszewski with a passion for fostering cooperation among peoples of all types. The discrimination he saw Mexican-Americans facing upon his arrival in El Paso in 1968 made him all the more determined to teach his students the importance of standing up, being counted and fighting for democratic rights – all principles of political science they could enact in day-to-day life.
“I always say to my students, ‘It isn’t we Americans, we Mexicans, we Poles. It’s human beings,’” he said. “I was driven to political science because I wanted to find out about justice and discrimination because I suffered all of that. I barely survived it.”
Throughout his life, Kruszewski has remained a committed world citizen, contributing his energy and talents toward causes close to home and in locales where needed. He co-founded the international Association for Borderlands Studies in 1976, which has grown to encompass academic, governmental and nongovernmental agencies representing almost every continent.
“He’s a great scholar who helped to put comparative border studies on the world map,” said Kathleen Staudt, Ph.D., professor of political science. “It’s one thing to teach dry political science concepts and principle; it’s another thing to include all those stories with the concepts and principles because, in the end, that’s often what students remember.”
Staudt recounted a story about Kruszewski’s affability. As chair of the political science department, Kruszewski offered to meet her at the airport when Staudt was hired by UTEP in 1977. “How will I know how to find you?” she asked him during a pre-flight phone call. “By my bushy eyebrows,” he responded.
The political science giant arrived at UTEP after a very unorthodox job interview in a bar near New York’s Kennedy Airport. He had been teaching at State University of New York at Plattsburg after receiving his master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, working any jobs he could get his hands on to pay his way through school.
Kruszewski’s community work within his adopted hometown has included service on the El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center board of directors. The museum held a gala in Kruszewski’s honor several years ago to help fund a UTEP scholarship honoring him and his family.
That scholarship is the tip of an iceberg of generosity extended by Kruszewski and his wife, June, toward the University. Their permanent legacy at UTEP includes several endowed professorships and scholarships, named after the Kruszewskis or in honor of members of their family.
María Socorro Tabuenca, Ph.D., recalled how Kruszewski donated a large sum toward a border conference when she was director of El Colegia de la Frontera Norte in Juárez.
“He’s been very, very gracious and we’re always going to be grateful to him for that,” she said, adding, “Every time that I think of Tony, I see his big eyebrows, his willingness to help students and to share his knowledge not only from books but from his experience.”
Retired Col. Joseph Ostrowidzki met Kruszewski in 1979 when he brought the professor in to lecture his students at Fort Bliss’ U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy and provide a contrasting viewpoint to what instructors from Washington, D.C., were stating about Soviet manpower, weaponry and military might.
“I invited Tony to come over to the Sergeant Major Academy and talk to us not about how powerful the Soviet Union is, but on the other hand, how weak they are,” Ostrowidzki said. “We heard the military side of the story, which is true, but then also found out the other side of the story from Tony.”
A full professor at UTEP by 1972, Kruszewski served twice as chair of the Department of Political Science and two terms as chair of the UTEP Graduate Council. He traveled extensively as a guest lecturer and visiting professor to universities in Poland, Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary, Brazil, Japan, Israel, Germany, Ukraine and Russia.
The University of Texas System lauded Kruszewski with the Chancellor’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 1988. He received the UTEP Vice President for Academic Affairs Award for Academic Excellence in 1982.
Patricia Witherspoon, Ph.D., dean of the College of Liberal Arts, said that Kruszewski intentionally chose to retire at the end of UTEP’s Centennial year – fitting given that he contributed so much to the University’s growth over almost half of its first century.
With his official tenure as professor having ended, Kruszewski still has a lot to do. Up first is the completion of a memoir for the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of History of Science. Afterward, the educator will remain on call within the political science department, teaching one or two classes as the need arises.
The tremendous impact he has had upon those who know him is clear. For those who don’t yet know Tony, stop and say hello if you spot the eyebrows nearby. You’ll learn a lot in the process, for those eyebrows belong to a legend.