9th President of the Polish National Alliance

Born in the Krakow region in Austrian-ruled Poland, Steczynski was a horticulturist by training whose early activities in Polonia were with the Falcons' Alliance. Associated with Polish émigré politics centered in Switzerland, Steczynski joined the Polish National Alliance in 1896 and rapidly rose to leadership in the movement.

 

Elected President in 1903, Steczynski led the PNA until 1912, when he resigned to become the business administrator of the newly established Alliance School, a post he held until his death. Steczynski personally planted the trees that lined the college from seedlings brought from Poland. Steczynski's presidency was a time of enormous intellectual and organizational ferment; efforts were made to unify the PNA with the Falcons', Singers' and Youth Alliances; the Polish Daily Zgoda was established; the fund drive to build a monument to Kosciuszko in Washington, D.C. was realized; and an Alliance School was created in Pennsylvania.

 

Steczynski's significance was such that during his tenure, leaders of the PNA were able to meet with two American Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft. And, he played a major role in organizing the Polish National Congress held in 1910. It was Steczynski who proposed the resolution that symbolized the PNA's patriotic commitment to Poland at the 1910 convention: "We Poles have the right to existence as an independent nation and we believe it is our sacred duty to strive for the political independence of our fatherland, Poland."