LAST FAREWELL

One of the few people who can and should be called the CREATORS of WSB-NLU has left us. Dr Frederic Widlak, nicknamed Fred by us, came to us after signing a contract with NLU in the trio of the first NLU staff to become directors of the programme blocks that have been part of the study programme since October 1992. Fred was in charge of the most important part, namely the business subjects. In addition, he was appointed director of the NLU programme at our University by the NLU president. He worked at our WSB-NLU all the time until his illness , which ended with his death. I remember Fred from our first year working together how he demanded the installation of a so-called Mailbox, a cabinet with compartments where mail could be distributed to individual employees. At that time, there was no Internet system in Poland that now makes it easy to forward mail, and this mailbox greatly improved the management of the University. In the early years of the WSB-NLU, I met Dr Widlak very often; he was extremely dedicated to the University and decided to stay in Nowy Sącz permanently, after the anticipated three contract years had elapsed. From meetings with Dr Widlak, I remember that he always came to meetings with a thick calendar in which he wrote down everything that was said. I cannot divulge all the details of the many years of collaboration with the NLU leadership but I can state emphatically that Dr Frederic Widlak rescued us several times in difficult moments. Fred's ancestors came from Poland, emigrated to the USA for bread, Fred initiated the reverse process - he was one of the first Americans, after Poland regained its independence in 1989, to decide to return to the land of his ancestors and remained there for the rest of his life. Honour to His memory. Krzysztof Pawłowski, founder and long-time rector of WSB-NLU, current president.