FORMER VICE CENSOR LEOPOLD CIASTON
PASSES AWAY

Warren, Michigan - Longtime PNA activist and former PNA Vice Censor Leopold Ciaston passed away on Monday, October 15, 2007. He was born August 29, 1929, in Luck, Poland, son of Wladyslaw and Stefania Ciaston.

Like many in Poland in this era, he spent his childhood and teen years as a war refugee. During this period in his life he moved between work and refugee camps in the White Sea of Russia, Siberian Kazakstan, India and Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand and Mexico.

In 1945 he was taken in by Orchard Lake St Mary Seminary near Detroit where he completed high school and graduated with the class of 1947.

After high school, Leopold attended Alliance College in Camridge Springs, Pennsylvania, graduating with an associate degree in mechanical engineering. He served in the U.S. aarmed forces during the Korean conflict.

In 1957, in Detroit he married Krystyna Jasinski with whom he had four children: Jan, Maria, Edward and Irena. In 1984, Leopold married Wanda Jaszczolt and became stepfather to her three children: Bogdan, Frank and Anna.

Leopold work as a toolmaker for various manufacturing firms until his retirement in 2004, during which time he helped many Polish immigrants obtain work and learned the tool-making trade. Following his retirement, he became an avid gardener at his home in Warren, Michigan.

From the 1950's to his death, Leopold Ciaston was an important contributor to Polish-American organizations in Detroit and nationally. He was President of PNA Council 122 in the 1960's and 1970's, and served as National Vice Censor of the PNA from 1975 to 1983. As a national officer of the PNA, he joined delegations that met with President Jimmy Carter and Pope John Paul II and chaired the commencement of Orchard Lake St. Mary's in 1977. He contributed to Radio Free Europe broadcasts to Poland during the 1960's and 1970's to provide encouragement to Poles during the communist oppression and also provided financial support to the Polish government-in-exile in London during this period. In the 1990's he was a member of a panel that successfully persuaded the American government to re-inter the remains of noted Polish Composer, statesman, and philanthropist Ignacy Jan Paderewski from Arlington National Cemetery to his native Poland when it was liberated 51 years after Paderewski's death.

Leopold is survived by his wife Wanda, four children and three step children, his sister Janina Rice, and ten grandchildren and ten step-grandchildren.

Submitted by: Jan and Edward Ciaston