Grocholski Roman (1922 – 2009)

Roman Grocholski, son of Kazimierz and Zofia from the Rozwadowski family, was born in Rożyska, in the Tarnopol province.
He spent his childhood on his parents’ estate by the Zbrucz river. After completing a four-grade “Ludowa” school, he was sent to the Jesuit gymnasium and high school in Chyrów.

At the start of World War II, 17-year-old Roman was with his parents and grandparents in Lviv. After the Red Army entered the city, his father, a reserve major of the Polish Army, decorated with the Virtuti Militari for the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920, was immediately arrested and murdered.
Roman, along with his mother (decorated with the Cross of Valour for the war against the Bolsheviks) and grandmother, was deported to Kazakhstan, to Kustanai.
His grandfather, Colonel Wiktor Rozwadowski, taken to an unknown place, was found in 1994 on the list of those murdered in Katyn.

In Kazakhstan, thanks to his very good knowledge of Ukrainian from primary school and having a driver’s license, fortunately translated into Russian, Roman quickly became a tractor driver, and later a kolkhoz truck driver. This way, he found himself in the “elite class” of exiles.
Neither he nor his mother avoided imprisonment in exile.
Roman was imprisoned on charges of espionage, his mother – because she was his mother. His grandmother did not survive this.

Roman’s “espionage” consisted of reading between the lines in an official newspaper (a skill taught to him by a Soviet journalist “aired out” for some disloyalty in Kazakhstan) that the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact was becoming obsolete, and he unwittingly mentioned it in the kolkhoz. That was enough…
He was saved by the so-called amnesty for Poles and left the Land of Eternal Happiness with Anders’ Army.

Roman’s dream was aviation. He wanted to be a pilot. He tried. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. He had been deaf in one ear since childhood. Nevertheless, he remained in aviation. In ground service, he was a radar and radiolocation specialist, among others, in the 300 Bomber Squadron.

After the war, he studied economics at the University of London and, after receiving a Bachelor of Science (Economy) degree, decided to emigrate to Canada.
He worked in Montreal for the Ministry of Defence, and then for British Petroleum in Toronto.

In May 1960, he married Maria Rozwadowska, who had just arrived in Canada on a scholarship. Shortly after their wedding, they moved to the United States together. They spent the first 10 years in Detroit, where Roman worked at Ethyl Corporation and then at General Motors while studying part-time at the University of Michigan in industrial management. He received his Master of Science (Industrial Administration) degree in 1968.
The next “stop” for 20 years was Chicago. He worked there for Amoco as an economist-computer programmer until retirement, which he took at the age of 70.

Then they settled permanently in Sarasota, where they had been coming for vacations for many years.
Roman always had wide interests and extensive knowledge. He had an excellent memory. He read a lot. He collected valuable books. He was interested in politics, particularly U.S. foreign policy and European politics with an emphasis on Polish affairs. He was well-informed about what was happening in the Country.
He was interested in art. He kept up with trends in world architecture. Despite a severe hearing impairment, he loved music. He listened to it. He had a huge collection of records. He liked to dance and loved “chats” in a small circle (he heard better then).
In his youth, he was athletic and loved skiing and tennis. He played tennis almost to the end…
Always full of life, he left many friends who are now in mourning.