In Memory of Dr. Bohdan Kulakowski

June 1942 - March 2006

The following are remembrances of Dr. Bohdan Kulakowski submitted by his colleagues, students and friends

From: "Kyle Budgeon" <mkb167@psu.edu>

I was a friend of Dr. Kulakowski. He helped me immensely when I was an undergrad and is responsible for much of what I know today and motivation for pursuing a higher education. I am simply at a loss of words today, perhaps because I am in shock. I know that you are a friend of his as well, so I want
to offer my services if any is requested. Please send my deepest regards and condolences to his family. Maybe I will have better words when I am not beside myself.

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From: "Thomas McGuire" <tpm152@psu.edu>

Please give my regards to Professor Kulakowski's family and friends. I had the priviledge to take one of his classes last semester and he was one of the nicest guys I have ever met. I am away on a co-op this semester so I will not be able to be at Penn State in the next few weeks to do anything in person, but if there is a card or something of the like in the department for ME students and faculty to sign going to his family please put my name on it.

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From: John Mason [mailto:jmason@engr.psu.edu]

To the Kulakowski Family:

The news of Bohdan's passing is extremely difficult for all of us at PTI. I personally have a very heavy heart and I join all at PTI in trying to deal with our individual feelings. I have had the distinct pleasure of working along side Bohdan since I arrived at PSU/PTI over 18 years ago; my very first PSU research project was in collaboration with Bohdan. Since then, he and I have continuously worked together in many roles: joint researchers, as the management team at PTI and in cooperation with departments, colleges, and our public and private sponsors. We worked our way through all the good things of PTI, and we saw are way through the rough times. Throughout it all, Bohdan was always kind, patient and understanding of everyone he encountered -- he touched many in the most positive of ways.

I have shared three things with the inquiries I am responding to, both internally and externally, regarding this tragedy. I feel these provide a brief insight in the qualities we have all enjoyed and observed over the years:

- Bohdan has shown by example what it means to be a student-centered university. His focus remained on working with our students in all capacities their livelihood and their respective scholarly work.

- His teaching awards culminated in the highest of distinction.

- Recent interest and inquiries regarding this situation has come from across the United States and internationally his influence is wide; the respect for him as a person and scholar unquestionable.

I will continue to recall our personal and professional relationship; in every sense, Bohdan is truly a gentleman and a scholar.

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From: Ashok Belegundu <ashokbelegundu@yahoo.com>

I've enjoyed several doubles game in tennis with Bohdan, and he would always ask me re my knee , and recently encouraged me to participate in a PTI proposal. We were good friends. I'll miss him.

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From: "Adam Dean" <ajd276@psu.edu>

Here are my thoughts and remembrances of Dr. Kulakowski.

I've had relatively little time compared to most to get to know Dr. Kulakowski; however he was my professor this semester and I was his TA last semester.

In such a short time I grew to appreciate his personal concern for teaching others. He was always so prepared for class that he would lecture without any use of notes or PowerPoint slides, all while maintaining control of a class of over 100 students. I was often amazed at how attentive his students were to his lectures; it was fairly easy to determine by how loud and quickly the students would react with laughter to his brief, lighthearted comments.

I was also very impressed to see how he reacted to students cheating. He wouldn't report them to the school but would sit down with them, talk with them, and teach them the value of ethics. He understood the impact of having a good teacher, and he exercised it by being a good teacher.
I enjoyed being his student. He taught much more than engineering.

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From: "Richard Benson" <benson@vt.edu>

Like you all, I feel terrible grief, and it has been compounded by being so far away. (I am in Florida now and will leave for California on Sunday.) So much of the last two days I have contemplated what a wonderfully decent man Bohdan was, and how fortunate I was to spend ten years in his company. I cannot fathom what you are going through. My prayers are with you.

I told Jack Brenizer that "I will move heaven and earth" to be present for the PSU remembrance. I certainly want to include my own thoughts for the memorial book, and Leslie and I will be honored to contribute to the Kulakowski scholarship fund. Few people leave this Earth having done so much good. What an incredible man! What an incredible loss!

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From: "Ryan L Carley" <ryancarley@psu.edu>

If you are going to be posting a memorial site, I would like to add a small but simple bit to the page: I had Prof. Kulakowski for ME 82 last fall. I did not know him personally very well but he was one of the few 'great' professors that I have had here. He was *very* smart - he knew everything
inside and out. He also really did care if you learned the material or not. Even with such a large class as 82, he was willing to help you out one on one. He was seriously interested in a student pursuing their own academic betterment to the fullest of their ability.

I am saddened by his passing, in shock on Thursday. It is hard to believe.

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From: Gary Settles <gss2@psu.edu>

Why did it have to be Bohdan?

I'm writing this to try to get the tragedy off my chest so I can somehow go on with the semester. I showed up to teach my class on Thursday after the accident, having made up my mind that the work had to go on, but none of the students had heard about it yet, so when I put up an overhead with Bohdan's picture and the notice of his demise they were all just stunned into silence. The students were just as devoted to Bohdan as were we, his colleagues.

I knew Bohdan for 23 years. Not that he and I ran in the same technical circles or were pals after work, but I came to have tremendous respect for him. Always the consummate gentleman, he could stand on principle when required, and make his point without ever raising his voice. Never verbose, he always seemed able to provide a few well-chosen quiet words to help the rest of us get it into perspective. Bohdan was a superb educator and the most distinguished person that I knew. Even though he and I were about the same age, I looked up to him.

I mostly saw Bohdan in the Reber hallways and stairwells. Occasionally I went to his oddly long and narrow office for a chat. Once I listened while he geared up for his ride home, hearing how he worked his way through community backroads all the way from Boalsburg to campus and back, and how much he enjoyed his daily bike ride.

Over a decade ago, in the previous department head competition, Bohdan was a candidate that I supported strongly. That didn't work out, of course, but still I think he would have made an ideal department head (not to detract from Dick Benson in any way). Bohdan was one of us, he was an accomplished administrator, he had enormous respect, and everybody liked him. It seemed to me that, with Bohdan at the tiller, what could possibly go wrong?

Something did go terribly wrong. It's as if we somehow got off on a parallel universe without him. Bohdan richly deserved to finish his career and enjoy his retirement, like all of us plan to do and some of us actually will get to do. This was taken from him, his family, and all of us by a cruel accident. But Bohdan was not the sort of man that any of us can ever forget. The educational enterprise will go on, of course, but we've lost one of our best and brightest. Without him, as on his final night, there is going to be a lasting chill in the air.

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From: NJ Salamon <njsalamon@psu.edu>

One day I was cycling to school when I came upon Bohdan Kulakowski standing beside his bicycle with grease all over his hands and, I could not help noticing, a bike chain dangling loose to the ground. "Bohdan, can I help", I stopped and said. He greeted me with that nice smile and replied, "No, thank you, I'll be o.k." "But at least I can help get you cleaned up...I live around the corner." "No, I can't leave; I have someone coming to pick me up." So I took a rag out of my pack and handed it to him and he wiped away what grease he could. I left him there with waves and smiles.

As it turns out, after years of not seeing Bohdan, last week he sent an email to me asking for help with finding a materials consultant. I did help and he replied with a thank you.

And that's how I remember Bohdan: that nice smile, that gentle, unassuming manner, that rider of bicycles through most any weather, that consideration for a coming rescuer. And courteous as always.

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From: "Frank W. Schmidt" <fws@psu.edu>

Bohdan's untimely death was a true tragedy not only to his family but the entire university community and his personal friends.

Bohdan and I developed a deep friendship. In 1978 I was in the process of completing a book on energy storage, co-authored with John Willmott at York University. Bohdan had spent a year with John in 1972 on a United Nations postdoctoral fellowship. I received a letter from Bohdan asking me if I would support his application for a senior Fulbright scholarship. He was successful and arrived in State College in the fall of 1979. He was a wonderful co-worker and became a very close friend. In some respects our relationship developed such that I thought of him as my younger brother and we did many things together with our families.

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From: "Tim King" <tck127@psu.edu>

Professor Kulakowski was a fine lecturer and an excellent advisor. He always took the time to understand my academic dilemma and consider all of my options with me. He was everything I could have wanted in an advisor. I was deeply saddenned to hear of his untimely passing.

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From: "James G. Brasseur" <brasseur@psu.edu>

Bodhan has been my colleague in Mechanical Engineering for nearly 20 years. We both love downhill skiing and each year over Spring break he would visit his son in Colorado, and I my in-laws in Utah. Upon our return we would trade stories about the snow, the skiing, the fun. This year he could not go during Spring break, so I took pleasure in kidding him about the exceptional snow this year. The day he died we sat next to each other and chatted at a department seminar. He was a wonderful colleague whom I and his colleagues in Mechanical Engineering at Penn State shall miss.

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From: "Greg Lewis" <gsl120@psu.edu>

I have had fifty or sixty different professors for class as an undergrad and here at Penn State as a grad student, and Professor Kulakowski was one of the best. His clarity of thought and presentation was amazing. I learned so much from him, and not just about the class subject. The level of excellence in his teaching and eagerness to help students in and outside of class is possible only in someone who cares about others deeply. He spent hours with me to help me prepare for my candidacy
exams. He was witty and I would like when he would sometimes tell a quick personal story that related an engineering concept to something outside of class. It would put a smile on my face, I think mainly
because it was nice just to learn something more about him. He was someone to look up to and want to be like in every way. He is and will always be a truly great role model for me and I'm sure countless others. His friendliness and smile are warmly remembered, and he is very much missed.

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From: Meghan Hoskins <meh200@psu.edu>

I would like to add my thoughts to the outpouring of emotion regarding Dr. Kulakowski. I knew him mostly as a Professor. I took his ME 440 course when I was an undergraduate years ago, but I still remember how concise and logical his lectures were. It was very evident that he had taken the time to organize the subject matter in a way the future engineers in the classroom would understand. I also remember meeting him for office hours on several occasions, and whether it was for course help or other advice, it was clear that he was totally focused on me and my questions. His patience, kindness, and honest concern for his students made any student of his, including myself, grateful. Though I took only one course with Dr. Kulakowski, it is one I learned a lot in and I gained a very strong respect for my Professor. It is a great loss to future students that he will not be able to continue his work with them, but I believe it is a great gift to anyone who knew him, whether as a Professor, as a friend, or as family, to have known him.

My sincerest sympathies to all who mourn Dr. Kulakowski.

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From: John Karidis <karidis@us.ibm.com>

I remember Bohdan from the early 80's when I was a student, but I hadn't seen him in over 23 years until the recent IPAC dinner. He looked the same, sounded the same, and was the same very friendly and talented person that I remember. He will surely be missed.

My heartfelt sympathy goes out to his immediate family as well as his large extended family of colleagues, friends, and students.

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From: "Hawk, Natalie M" <Natalie.M.Hawk@boeing.com>

I received the news a little late (I just went through my Engineering
alumni magazine.) What a tragedy - Dr. Kulakowski was easily one of the
favorite professors of all time for many alumni. His manner of relating
the controls world to everyday life made the subject easy to understand.
He is sorely missed.

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From: Bob and Georgene Jacobs <geokir2@whidbey.com>

Georgene and I were greatly grieved when Joe Sommer informed us of the tragic loss of Professor Bohdan Kulakowski. Bohdan had been a significant contributor to the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Penn State prior to my joining them as Department Head in 1984. It was with great pleasure that the faculty and I worked to get him his first tenure track appointment. Bohdan was in every way an excellent faculty member. He was a truly excellent teacher much appreciated by his colleagues and students. Bohdan appreciated the need for and contribution of research to his students, both graduate and undergraduate, and supported their involvement. When Jim Wambold and JJ Henry invited his participation with them at PTI he embraced the activity, and soon became a vital member of that organization while continuing his exceptional contributions to the Department.

In addition to being a great teacher and strong researcher, Bohdan was a willing team player and involved others in his activities. He soon showed his leadership with younger faculty and became a mentor in the art of teaching. I was delighted to recommend him as both a PSES Distinguished Teacher and for the PSES Premier Teaching Award while I was Department Head. His reputation as a Mentor and a Teacher as well as his research contributions at PTI led to his being selected as Head of PTI at the time JJ Henry stepped down. He maintained that position for a significant number of years.

Besides the academic attributes mentioned above, Bohdan was a warm and generous person. All of us regarded him as a friend as well as a colleague. We know that he will be greatly missed by all of you within the Department and at PTI. He is, we know, missed by former colleagues as well.

He is greatly missed by his family whom he loved, and spoke of with pride. We remember with fondness, his delight at the fencing talents shown by his son, Dominik, whom he felt was going to be good enough to enter Olympic competition.

Our hearts go out to Barbara, Dorota, Dominik, Tom and Ursula for their crushing loss. We hope that our few words will let them know with what great respect he was held by all of his friends and colleagues and that we shall long remember him and his ready smile and friendship. He was a gentleman and a gentle man.

With deepest sympathy to all,
Bob and Georgene Jacobs

This page updated on February 6, 2007