Blindness leads to clarity
Near the end of World War II, a young Polish soldier, temporarily blinded by an anti-tank mine, began his new life in the dark.
By 1945, Edward Rozek had fled his homeland and spent time in a Nazi slave labor camp. He had fought his former captors in France and Germany, earning numerous medals. Then, as he spent nearly a year recovering from surgery on his eyes, he made a decision.
“Because he couldn’t see, he had plenty of time to think,” says Rozek’s wife, Elizabeth Rozek. “He began thinking, ‘Why is it that every generation or so the old men of one country send their young men to fight against the young men of another country?’ He decided that there had to be a better solution, and that started with teaching young people.”
Rozek died Feb. 19 in Boulder. He was 90.
When Rozek arrived in the United States, he carried $50 and a drive to find the best education in the country, his wife said. He worked on a dairy farm and in an auto shop to save enough money for tuition to Harvard, where he soon earned scholarships that carried him through advanced degrees.
For the next several decades, Rozek concentrated on studying his way into the top tiers of academia, earning a place as an international relations expert and vehement anti-communist. On campus, in the classroom and even in retirement, he consistently set sparks of debate and reveled each time they caught fire.
Rozek joined the CU political science in 1956. Soon afterward, one of his students was an accounting major named Hank Brown (Acct’61, Law’69).
“I remember in the first class I had from him I missed the third lecture,” says Brown, who served as CU president from 2005-2008. “And in a class of more than 250 he noticed I’d missed one lecture and he announced to the class that whoever knew me should tell me that I was to come to his office immediately…he made it clear to me that it was inexcusable that I miss a single class.”
During his 43 years at CU, Rozek chaired the Institute for the Study of Comparative Politics and Ideologies and directed the Central East European Studies Program, among others. He was known to spend days preparing for a single lecture, and quickly earned a reputation for classes as riveting as they were demanding.
“He took great delight in engaging with people who would debate with him – especially those who disagreed with him,” said Brown, who now teaches in the same department where Rozek taught. “People who did that would often get the best grades in the class.”
Throughout the years, Rozek never wavered in his staunch warnings about what he saw as the constantly lingering threat of communism and in 1980 was tapped as an advisor to Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign.
Following his retirement in 1999, Rozek focused his ire at university bureaucracy and what he saw as a lack of intellectual diversity, barraging local newspapers with editorials. He even trained his poison pen on a former student.
“Administrators were not his favorite group of people,” Brown says, in a not-so-subtle understatement. “I suspect that I was a bit of a disappointment to him in that regard.”
In 2008, Rozek bought a full-page advertisement in the Boulder Camera alleging a disparity between registered Democratic and Republican professors, claiming the university suffered from “ideological incest.”
“Ed’s view was that the purpose of an education is to get people to think, and if they don’t think they just accept,” says Elizabeth Rozek, to whom he dictated most of his op-ed articles. “He maintained that the purpose of education is not just ingestion of information. It’s learning to think for yourself.”
Despite his intimidating reputation, Rozek’s wife says he also remained guided by a compassion ingrained as he recovered from the injury that nearly blinded him in the war that shaped so much of his life. On his first visit back to Poland after the fall of communism, he spent hours at a Polish orphanage for blind and deaf children. After his death, his family directed all donations to the orphanage in his name.
“He was always mindful,” his wife says, “that there but for the grace of God, he could have gone.”
Jim Sheeler (MJour’07) is a Pulitizer Prize-winning writer who teaches at the journalism school.
I took every one of Prof. Rozek’s classes from 1975-1977. He was my favorite professor and I have thought of him often over the last 30 years. He was demanding but had a heart of gold and I will never forget him. Having lived in New Orleans since I graduated from CU I have been very disconnected. Rozek was always the one person that epitomized the academic aspect of my beloved years at CU. Thank you for this story about him.
Prof. Rozek was the one CU professor to leave his mark on me. His challenge for us to clearly define what a conservative is versus what a liberal is remains with me to this day. His argument for that answer remains logical and compelling. Rozek’s convincing and defiant positions against the overwhelmingly liberal mindset of the faculty at CU was disturbing and uncomfortable, and forced those who heard him to consider what truth really is…exactly what a true professor should do.
Rod Van Buskirk CU’77
Thank you for this wonderful tribute to a fantastic teacher that truly challenged and inspired so many of us. Since graduation, I have traveled a great distance through many wonders and hardships but endured and succeeded in part due to the insightful instruction of this gifted man. Although he no longer walks among us his fire still burns within those touched by his brilliance.
Thank you Dr. Rozek.
When I opened my copy of the COLORADAN to the Buff Tribute to Political Science professor Edward Rozek, I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach. He was one of the few bad memories I have of my four years at CU from 1960-64. I had forgotten his name and the class I took from him until I saw that article.
Saying Rozek was a “vehement anti-communist” was a real understatement. I was in his political science class during the height of the Soviet Union and the fear of communism in the US. He asserted strongly that the US should use any means whatsoever, including those that violated the US Constituion, to defeat communism because it was so inherently evil. Freedom of speech, the press, search and seizure, etc., seemed to be only an easily ignored inconvenience to him. I was truly puzzled because he had told us of his horrendous experiences under the Nazis but his comments sounded so Fascist. No one else in the class objected, he was a very forceful guy. I felt strongly that what Rozek was saying was wrong. I was scared to death as I rarely spoke out in any class and didn’t consider myself to be particularly scholarly or a good debater.
I finally raised my hand and said something to the effect that the Constitution protected us as a people and that violating it made us as “bad as them”. Not exactly illuminating but he made no effort to debate me. Rozek just used his age and experience to crush and humiliate me. He made it clear to the class that I was a stupid, naive little girl who didn’t understand the ways of the world and that righteous men like him would have to protect me from the “big bad commies”. I got a good grade in the class but never spoke up to him again.
Watching the events of the past 8 years, I am more convinced than ever that I was right about following the Constitution and that ideas like Rozek’s got us into the Iraq mess, allowed us to torture, to lie to and spy on the American people.
I would like to pay tribute to Professor Edward Rozek. In 1969, as a Junior and Political Science major, I will never forget his lectures and classes. It’s a long time ago, but his passion for freedom, as expressed in his condemnation of both the Nazis and the opppression of Communism still stick in my mind. I wish I could find my notebooks from his classes. What I will say is that 40 years later, I remember Professor Rozek with respect and fondness.
He was a truly inspirational teacher and will be missed terribly.
I hope this short note will also reach his wife Elizabeth. I was a student of your wonderful husband. I will never forget him.
Graeme
I would like to pay tribute to Professor Edward Rozek. In 1969, I was fortunate to take one of his courses as a Political Science Major. I will never forget his energetic lectures and classes. It was a long time ago but his passion for freedom, as expressed in his condemnation of both the Nazis and the oppression of Communism still are with me today. I wish I could find my notebooks from his classes. What I will stay is that 40 years later, I remember Professor Rozek with respect and fondness. He will be missed and today’s generations could learn a lot from him. To his wife Elizabeth, I send my sincere condolences.
I had the privilege of taking Dr. Rozek’s East European Bloc Communist Course in 1984. His interest in dialectic discourse, i.e. intellectually sparring with students that attempted to refute his opinions, was indeed memorable. This was a man that from his core, presented his thesis against tyrannical dictatorships and totalitarian hegemony, from his heart, based on his true life experiences. He would always listen to a reasonable argument (as long as it was not interfering with his teaching class time). He was truly an authentic classical liberal thinker, who’s only objection was working in an environment that did not portend to understand who he really was. I will miss him. Joshua Putterman
Edward Rozek was the most inspirational professor I encountered while in undergraduate school at CU. His impassioned lectures on the influence of Soviet communism on Eastern Europe (especially) were amazing to witness and thereafter to reflect upon. He made political science a fascinating study for me.
How very sorry I was to learn of the death of Dr. Rozek. From 1963-65 I took every possible class from him and became so inspired by his excellent lectures. He was a brilliant, passionate man who more than stood his ground against the completely unbalanced liberal Political Science faculty. In more than one of his courses I vividly recall the enthusiastic standing ovations he received after the term’s final lecture-quite a tribute to an outstanding man! He certainly enlightened and enriched my life. Condolences to his family.
I don’t believe anyone in my academic life ever had the impact on my life as Dr. Rozek. I always felt so fortunate that the classes I had with Dr. Rozek (about 5) coincided with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe (1988-90). His teaching left a powerful impact on my life as far as knowing how to differentiate between freedom, liberty and peace. Close to the year 2000 when the millenium approached I wished I could have heard Dr. Rozek upon learning that Time Magazine was finally considering using the picture of the Chinese student blocking the tank during the Tianamen Square protest of 1989 as a “picture of the century”. He advocated the whole next year that was one of the greatest demonstrations of a human’s desire for freedom. Dr. Rozek was a extroardinary professor who truly allowed his life’s experiences give many students a perspective that’s rare in today’s academia. His passing has saddened me and I send my thoughts and condolences to his family.
Professor Rozek is the one professor I remember who really made me think critically. He inspired me as a teacher and as a man who had experienced a life of hardships that I could never imagine. As tough as he was as a teacher, he had a humility and sensitivity about him which I was fortunate enough to experience when I spent a year in Cambridge and ran into him, by chance, and babysat for his children. My condolences go out to his wife and family.
I don’t know why but I just searched professor Rozek on google and discovered that he passed away. I took his classes in the mid 80′s when I was an undergraduate student at C.U. I have 2 stories about him that have stuck with me for many years. I remember a mid term exam that I slept through. This is an absolute crime in a class from Professor Rozek. I had been up for 2 days studying and simply slept through my alarm. I was sweating with fear when I walked into his office to try to explain the unexplainable. To my surprise, after I told him the truth, he let me take the exam right there and advised me that in the future I should set 3 alarm clocks so I could avoid this problem in the future. I even got a great mark on the test. The other thing I always remember is the stack of half sheets of paper on his desk in the lecture hall and each student was instructed to take one of these pieces of paper with them after they turned in their final exam and left the hall. Written on this paper was advice for the future from the professor and it went something like this:
There are 2 days in a week that one should never worry about.
One is yesterday.
Yesterday is gone forever and we have no control over it.
The other is tommorow.
Tommorow is not here yet.
This only leaves one day, today!
Man can only fight the battle of one day.
Good Luck!
(and then he wrote on the bottom)
Please post this at your desk or somewhere where you can see it.
I have carried this advice with me since then and it really is the most simple, best advice I ever got! Thanks Professor Rozek!!!!
My first experience with Dr. Rozek was in 1984, when taking a filler class; “Governments of England and France.” As inferred, it was not a class I felt would be interesting or impactful, it mainly filled a general education requirement that fit into my schedule at the University of Colorado. However, what transpired was Dr. Rozek proved to be one of the greatest and most influential teachers I have ever experienced in both my undergraduate and graduate studies. While I did not always agree with Dr. Rozek’s final conclusion or opinion. he DID exemplify what was best about critical thinking and higher education. Since leaving the University of Colorado, I lost contact with Ed Rozek, however not a year went by that I did not look back and think of him admirably. Not many people in my life had made such a subsatantial impact intellectually. Dr. Rozek truly was an intellectual giant.