Ignacy Nurkiewicz


Ignacy Nurkiewicz was a Polish engineer, a member of the Polish American Congress, as well as two-time president and one of the founders of the Józef Piłsudski Institute of America.

Biography

Nurkiewicz was born on November 2, 1887 in Poland. In 1900, he came to the United States and settled in Brooklyn. He finished engineering at the Pratt Institute in New York. In 1920, he started a factory of metal products, especially extinguishers, which was eventually turned into one of the biggest firms of this type in the United States.
He was active in many Polish-American organizations. Among others, he served as vice-president of the committee lobbying to move the King Jagiełło Monument from the Polish Pavilion of the 1939 New York World's Fair to Central Park, New York City. In 1942, he took part in the assembly of the Józef Piłsudski Polish Defense Alliance.
In 1943, he was one of the founders of the Józef Piłsudski Institute of America, after which he worked for the Polish American Congress, where he was responsible for immigrant affairs.
In the years 1949–51 he was the treasurer of the Piłsudski Institute. In 1954 he was named Marshal of the Pułaski Parade. In 1954–1955, he served as president of the Institute. Next, he became its vice-president, treasurer and president once again.
Nurkiewicz died on September 16, 1972 in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey.