CEDAR FALLS – Roman Cisek, 75, died on Thursday, November 23, 2023, at Allen Hospital in Waterloo.
He was born on January 1st, 1948, in Poland, the son of Stanislaw and Katarzyna (Zietek) Cisek. In 1971 Roman married Anna Szlek, and the following year he graduated from the Technical University in Cracow, Poland with an MS in Mechanical Engineering.
For the next twenty years Roman worked for Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW) in Poland, where in addition to gear design, with his language skills in English, German and Russian, he was involved in the transfer of technical know-how. He was integral to HSW's work with the International Harvester Company (IHC) and Clark Equipment Company and travelled extensively for training workshops to Chicago, IL and
Rochester, NY.
In the summer of 1993 Roman and his family moved to Chicago, where he worked as a gear engineer for Gearex Fulton and Chicago Gear until he joined the John Deere Product Engineering Center in Waterloo, IA, in July 1995 as a design engineer, responsible for parallel axis gears until his retirement in January, 2020. His research into gear surface durability resulted in several patents and collaborations with the Gear Research Institute at Penn State University, Ohio State University Gear Lab and FZG, in Aachen and Munich, in Germany.
His faith was central to his life and he was a longtime member of St. Patrick's Parish in Cedar Falls. He had lifelong interests in 20th century history, languages, politics, opera music and was an avid reader.
Roman is survived by his wife Anna and children, Andrew Cisek of Libertyville, IL, Lukasz and Agnieszka (Stec) Cisek of Waukesha, WI, Katryna Cisek of Dublin, Ireland, Julia Cisek granddaughter, and sister Elzbieta in Poland. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Danuta.
A Funeral Mass and burial will be held in Stalowa Wola, Poland at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to St. Patrick's Church,
Cedar Falls, IA, Cedar Valley Hospice or the Cedar Falls Historical Society.