Leszek Kazimierz (1925-2008) was born on June 6th, 1925 in Warsaw, Poland. He was the son of Bohdan Pawłowicz and Wanda Orla-Salmonowicz and had a younger sister, Hanna Antonina. He got married to Krystyna Jolanta Obrębska (1924 – 2012). They had four children: Danuta Helena (1956 – ), Leszek Mirosław (1957 -), Wanda Janina (1959 -) and Witold Bohdan Mieczysław (1964-).
He was a journalist and a radio commentator both in the US and in Poland.
He spent his childhood and did his primary school in Warsaw. However, in April 1940, he fled the war and emigrated to Brazil with his mother and sister. They first arrived in Curitiba, in the State of Paraná, and then when his father Bohdan arrived from London in 1943, they moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he finished his secondary school. In 1945, he left Rio de Janeiro and went to live in the US as he had been offered a scholarship at Fordham University in New York City. He was awarded his Bachelor of Sciences (B.S.) degree in communication in 1949.
During his studies (1945-1949), he worked in the newsroom at NBC. From 1949 to 1953 he was the producer of Voice of America and from 1953 to 1954 he was commercial coordinator at WPIX.
He started his career at CBS, where he worked from 1954 to 1962 first as Associate Producer, then Assistant to Producer, Program Coordinator and Assistant Manager of the Story Department. He worked on “Playhouse 90”, “Seven Lively Arts”, “UN in Action”, “Lawbreakers”, “Suspense”, “Bandwagon 56” and others.
In 1962 he worked for WNDT (now WNET), where he was the producer of “The World at Ten”.
From 1963 to 1965 he joined ABC News, where he was Assistant Manager of Convention and Election Coverage, Producer, Assistant to Executive Producer. He helped plan and organize coverage of the conventions in San Francisco and Atlantic City, the elections and inauguration. In 1964 he produced a documentary on the 1964 military takeover in Brazil.
In 1965 he returned to CBS, where he stayed until 1980. There he was Co-producer, Associate Producer, Field Producer, Production Manager on CBS Reports, Conversations with Eric Sevareid, CBS News Specials, The Twentieth Century and hard news coverage (space shots, riots, conventions, among which, the 1968 Chicago National Democratic Convention). He headed CBS film coverage, the elections, the Pope’s first trip to Poland, Tito’s death watch. He worked on a dozen documentaries such as Emmy winners “The Mexican Connection”, “The Great American Novel. “Selling of the Pentagon”, “Fathers and Sons”, “Campaign American Style”, “You and the Commercial”. He filmed all over the US and also in South Korea, Thailand, Algeria, Mexico, Yugoslavia, Poland, Portugal, Panama, Japan.
In 1979 he moved to Poland, where he founded, organized and headed the CBS Warsaw Bureau through the Solidarity period, martial law, demonstrations, papal visits. From 1980 to 1987 he was the Producer and Bureau Chief in Warsaw and wrote hundreds of stories on Evening News, Weekend News, Morning News and Specials.
In 1990, he became a representative of the Kosciuszko Foundation in Warsaw, and during his retirement, he contributed to the American magazine World Press Review.
As a free-lance, he was a commentator for Radio Free Europe, United Nations (1946-1947), RFE, WFU, WHOM, WATV, WNJU, USIA Films, Agencia Interaliada de Informações (Brazil), etc.
Author: TV documentaries; commentaries, i.a.: Fakty, Wydarzenia, Opinie, Radio Free Europe; radio docudramas, Voice of America; numerous articles in: Codzienny Niezalezny Kurier Polski (Argentina), Nowy Swiat, Nowy Dziennik.
Member of: Polish Journalists Association – Stowarzyszenie Dziennikarzy Polskich (SDP).
Honors: Gold Cross of Merit, Polish Government in Exile, London (United Kingdom), 1952; Emmy Award, National Academy of TV Arts and Sciences, 1972.
Affiliation: Roman Catholic.
Languages: He was fluent in Polish, English, Portuguese, Spanish and could communicate in French and Russian.
Hobby: books.
He died in Warsaw on April 19th 2008 and is buried in the Czerniakowski Cemetery in Poland.
Sources:
Who’s Who In Polish America. New York: Bicentennial Pub. Corp., 1996.
Personal archives and CV.