Stanisław Rafał Kielar

Born: in 1928 in the city of Łódź, Poland

Died: August 26, 2022, Ottawa, ON, Canada

His father, Franciszek Kielar, an officer of the Polish Army, with the rank of major, was imprisoned throughout the war in a POW camp Oflag IIB Woldenberg. His mother, Władysława, raised him and his younger sister, Barbara, on her own. From December 1940, Stanisław belonged to the Association of Armed Struggle and then to the Union of Polish Youth - Gray Ranks. In autumn 1942, Gestapo found ammunition storehoused in the Kifer house in Ursus. Tadeusz Kifer was executed in Oswięcim. Some of the ammunition was rescued. With his mother’s approval, Stanisław became the keeper of the ammunition in his parents’ house. The stored ammunition existed until 1945, when the command of the AK Section registered all members into the Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy.

Outline of activity in Poland after 1945.

After graduating from the Warsaw University of Technology in 1956, Stanisław worked at Polish Radio for seven years with the Department of Technical Training in Warsaw. He then took a position at the Experimental Department of the Bureau of Nuclear Techniques and the experimental station at the department under Prof. Groszkowski until 1971. He then immigrated to Canada. After a short stay in Toronto, he moved to Ottawa. In Ottawa, he worked at Northern Telecom, Mitel, and International Epitek Inc., where he was the Director of the Engineering Department.

Military service:

• December 1940 - Underground Military Organizations,

• September 3, 1944 - Home Army “6th Kordian Group”,

• Military Study at the Warsaw University of Technology 1952,

• Placed in the reserves in 1953.

Membership in social organizations:

In Poland, after 1945, he did not belong to any political parties. He belonged to the following organizations:

• Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy,

• Trade Union of Post and Telecommunications Employees in Poland,

• Association of Polish Inventors,

• Association of Singers – Men’s Choir “Harfa”.

Involvement in the cultural life of the Ottawa Polish Community:

• In the years 1989–99, he was the President of the Ignacy Paderewski Choir,

• Since 1993, he was a board member of the Polish Combatants’ Association, Branch # 8, in Ottawa,

• In the year 2000, he became President of the Ottawa Jadwiga Domańska Theater Club.

• Since 2007, he was a Director of the Polish Heritage Foundation in Canada. 

• In February 2022, Stanisław Kielar was declared an “Honorary Patron” of the Polish Heritage Foundation in Canada.

Awards:

• Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland - 25 July 2005,

• Home Army Cross, decision dated 25 March 1999,

• Medal for Warsaw 1939-1945,

• Combatants’ Bronze Cross PCA - twice,

• Silver Combatants’ Cross PCA,

• Golden Combatants’ Cross PCA - twice,

• Medal of Victory and Freedom - August 17, 1959,

• Gold Medal of the Polish Army - June 26, 2013,

• Gold Badge of the Canadian Polish Congress - May 26, 2001,

• Volunteer Badge - 25 years of social work in Canada,

• Diploma on the Occasion of the 70th anniversary of the PCA in Ottawa - August 12, 2017.

• Diploma “Man of the Year Ottawa 2000” - in recognition of work in the Polish Community of Ottawa.

• Volunteer-of-the-Year 2002, Ottawa Rowing Club.