Marek Zawadowski

[Paul Taylor <categories@PaulTaylor.EU>]

Obituaries of colleagues are always sad, but they become
shocking when they are for friends of exactly one's own age.

Marek was a friend, not really a collaborator, of mine.

I first met him at the Cambridge CT conference in 1986,
when we were each finishing our PhD theses.

He helped organise three of my four visits to Poland and
was an excellent host to me and my partner.  On one visit
he helped to return my spectacles to me in London,  after
I had dropped them in a town in the far NE of the country!

My first visit was in 1993, not long after the fall of
Communism.  Warsaw had been flattened by the Nazis and
was now dominated by the Palace of Culture and Science,
a "gift" from Joseph Stalin.   It was said that the best
thing about being in it was that then you could no longer
see the Palace of Culture.

By my second visit, in 2013, numerous "capitalist"
skyscrapers had sprouted up in central Warsaw, so
I asked Marek what he thought of them.

He replied, "which do you prefer, Typhoid, or Cholera?"

It is that dry sense of humour that I will always remember.

After the elections in November I asked him what he
thought and he gave a typically cynical response.
I was hoping to get a more detailed opinion once
Donald Tusk had finally got his feet under the prime
minister's desk.  Now I will not hear what Marek thought.

I know his family has deep roots in Warsaw and his uncle
died in the Uprising against the Nazis (watched by the
Red Army from across the river).  Poland is now restoring
Democracy for the fourth time.  I am very sorry that
my friend Marek will not get to see that flourish.

My commiserations to his partner Justyna, his two sons,
his family and his colleagues.

Sorry for he late reply: I was on holiday in S America.

Paul Taylor.



----------

You're receiving this message because you're a member of the Categories mailing list group from Macquarie University.

Leave group:
https://outlook.office365.com/owa/categories@mq.edu.au/groupsubscription.ashx?source=EscalatedMessage&action=leave&GuestId=4eb9b40c-9b3a-48a5-9781-836e5a171e8b