NEWS

from Central Connecticut State University
Honored as a "Leadership Institution" by the Association of American Colleges & Universities

Media contact: Peter Kilduff, Director of University Relations
(860) 832-1791; Kilduff@ccsu.edu


Dr. Michael A. Peszke to be honored for long service, awarded Polish Medal of Merit at CCSU on October 13

NEW BRITAIN – October 11, 2007 – Dr. Michael A. Peszke, a prominent Connecticut psychiatrist, internationally known aviation historian and longtime supporter of Polish studies in the U.S., will be awarded the Polish Medal of Merit by the Stanislaus A. Blejwas Endowed Chair in Polish and Polish American Studies in a special convocation at Central Connecticut State University On Saturday, October 13.

Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz will deliver remarks as part of the presentation ceremonies.

“Dr. Peszke has had a pivotal role in the establishment of Polish Studies at CCSU, beginning with his drafting of a Pulaski Day Proclamation in 1970 for the Connecticut District of the Polish American Congress that led to the passage of legislation establishing the Polish Studies Program at Central,” according to Dr. M.B. Biskupski, holder of the Blejwas Chair.

“Most recently, Dr. Peszke lent his expert knowledge and leadership to the establishment of a permanent exhibit at the New England Air Museum honoring the famed Kósciuszko Squadron,” Biskupski said.

The Polish Medal of Merit was established in 1998 by Dr. Alex Rudewicz and Mrs. Regina Rudewicz to recognize individual achievement, meritorious service, leadership, and contribution to the Polish and the American communities over an extended period of time.

Michael A. Peszke, M.D. was born in Poland, the son of a Polish Air

Force officer. He left Poland as a child during the German and Russian invasion and traveled widely throughout Europe before settling in Great Britain in 1941. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin with a medical degree. After advanced training in psychiatry in the U.S., Peszke had a long and distinguished career in the medical profession including teaching positions at Yale, the University of Chicago, the University of Maryland and the UConn Medical School. He was also on the faculty of the UConn School of Law.

He was President of the Hartford Psychiatric Society, advisor to the Connecticut General Assembly and the court system regarding mental health issues. He was also part of an investigative team which made breakthrough findings regarding the treatment of schizophrenia. He retired from the profession in 1999 as Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Peszke has also been a historian specializing in Polish military history and the history of World War II. He has published three major books, as well as many essays and reviews and has presented a large number of papers at conferences in both Europe and America. He continues to add new items to what is already a lengthy bibliography of scholarly works in his “other” field.

Peszke has been a tireless supporter of Polish studies in the U.S., serving – among others – as Vice President of the Friends of Kosciuszko at West Point, and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Polish Studies Program at CCSU. He is a member of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal United Services Institute in London.

Since its inauguration in January 1974, the Polish Studies Program has served CCSU students and the broader central Connecticut community by interpreting and offering perspectives on historic developments that reshaped global politics and human rights during the fourth quarter of the 20th century: the election of Pope John Paul II in 1978, the creation of the Solidarity movement in 1980, the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989, and Poland’s regained sovereignty and admission as an American ally into NATO in April 1998.

The Stanislaus A. Blejwas Endowed Chair in Polish and Polish American Studies was inaugurated in 1997 at CCSU, thanks to the generosity of Connecticut’s Polish Americans and their friends and a matching grant of $600,000 from the State of Connecticut. The chair is named in honor of the late Dr. Stanislaus A. Blejwas, founder of CCSU’s Polish Studies Program and the first person to be designated a CSU Professor by the Connecticut State University System. It is one of only two such chairs in the country -- the other being at Harvard. In 2002, Dr. M.B. Biskupski, an eminent Polish American scholar, was appointed to the endowed chair.

The Chair sponsors lectures, cultural events, exhibitions, recitals and concerts, and literary evenings. In conjunction with the Department of History, the Chair offers courses in history, politics, culture, literature, language, and on the Polish American ethnic community. The Polish Heritage Collection in the University Library, numbering over 21,000 catalogued books and periodicals, supplements course offerings. The Connecticut Polish American Archives is a research depository for the public, scholars and students of the Polish community in America.

# # #