Obituary of Jan Stefanowicz

Jan Stefanowicz, 104, died on November 14, 2015 at his home in Dunellen, New Jersey. A highly decorated World War II veteran and dedicated Polish-American patriot, he was born on January 19, 1911 in the village of Klemenspole in a part of the Russian Empire that is currently Belarus. Born to a Polish family, he became a citizen of independent Poland in 1918 at the end of World War I. At age nine, he lost both his parents to typhus, and he and his four siblings were raised by their grandmother. As an adult, Mr. Stefanowicz moved to the city of Wilno in Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania), where he worked as a technical assistant at the Regional Land Improvement Company. Mr. Stefanowicz first served in the Polish Army from 1935 to 1936 in the elite 5th Legions Infantry Regiment in Wilno, and with the coming of the Second World War, he was remobilized in April of 1939 to the Border Protection Corps, serving in the "Słobódka" infantry battalion. With the outbreak of war, he fought Red Army troops before being taken prisoner by Soviet forces. Mr. Stefanowicz remained in captivity until Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union resulted in a Soviet-British alliance and subsequent amnesty for Polish prisoners. In early 1942, he was recruited for the new Polish Army under British command being formed by General Władysław Anders. The troops traveled through Uzbekistan, Iran, the Levant, and Egypt before joining the fight against fascism in Italy. Mr. Stefanowicz fought bravely for the hard-won Allied victory at the Battle of Monte Cassino before being wounded and transferring to a military hospital in Scotland, where he remained through the end of war. After the war, Mr. Stefanowicz found work at an orange marmalade factory in Stratford-on-Avon, England, where he met his future wife, Kazimiera Rusinek. When her family immigrated to the United States, he followed in 1952, finding employment at the Art Color Printing Co. in Dunellen, New Jersey. Jan and Kazimiera were married in 1953 and had two children. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1961. He later was employed as a custodian in the Dunellen Public Schools where he worked for almost 20 years before retiring in 1987 as head custodian at age 76. That same year he lost his wife. In 1992, with the fall of the Soviet Union, he was finally, at age 81, able to make a return trip to his birthplace. Since 1960 he was a dedicated member of the Polish Army Veterans of America, Post 57 SWAP, Elizabeth, NJ. In 2012, the Republic of Poland awarded him the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of Poland's highest honors, for his wartime service. Mr. Stefanowicz is survived by his two daughters, Lydia (husband, Robert Monticchio), Watchung, NJ, and Elizabeth, Rockville, MD, as well as two grandchildren, Catherine ("Katie") Monticchio Hallock and Robert ("Jack") Monticchio, Jr., who were the pride and joy of his life. Funeral arrangements are through Middlesex Funeral Home, 528 Bound Brook Road, Middlesex, New Jersey. Friends and family may call on Tuesday, November 17, 2015 between 4-7pm to express their condolences. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 9AM St. John The Evangelist RC Church, 317 1st St. Dunellen, New Jersey. Burial will be at Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Linden, New Jersey.