Stefania Frank

FRANK

Stefania Engelhardt 9/2/1922 - 7/7/2015

Stefania was born in Warsaw, Poland to Bogumila (Stark) and Fryderyk Stefan Engelhardt. On the eve of her 17th birthday, Poland was invaded by Germany and Russia. During the war Stefania completed her secondary education in underground schools in Warsaw. She joined the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) smuggling arms and building bombs. In 1944 she served as a field nurse in the 63 days of street fighting of the Warsaw Uprising. She surrendered with the Home Army and was interned as a POW in three consecutive camps including Bergen Belsen. When her last camp Oberlangen was liberated, she made her way to England. The British in their great wisdom and humanity gave her and others scholarships, uniforms, and pay. She attended London University 1945-1946. She returned to Poland and worked as an English interpreter and translator for agriculture, industry, and the British Consulate. She attained a master's degree in English at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland in 1951.

She met her second husband, Professor John J. Gross, when he taught in Poznan under a Fulbright. They married in London in 1960. She immigrated with her daughters to the USA in 1961 and resided in Kokomo, Indiana and then Bowling Green, Ohio. She served as the BGSU Language Lab Director from 1965 until she retired, also teaching some Polish and Ethnic Studies courses. In the 1970s she was an outspoken opponent when BGSU campus police wanted to arm themselves with hollow point bullets. She supported equal pay for equal work. She spoke half a dozen languages, loved gardening, travel, music and the arts. She was a prolific artist in stained glass, batique on silk, and beading, selling her work through the Toledo Museum Stores. Some of her work was exhibited at the Toledo Museum of Art Area Artist exhibition. She was very generous with friends and family, helping to support many families in Poland during hard times.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her sisters, Szarlotta Zasada and Izolda Kotlarczyk; her first husband, Zygfryd Wieczorek; her second husband, John J. Gross, and her third husband, Ralph W. Frank.

She is survived by her daughters, Margaret M. Reynard (Jon) of Upper Darby, PA and Katherine J. Wieczorek (Harold Freeman) of Norwalk, OH; her grandchildren, Renee (O'Hara), Rochelle Reynard and Dylan Freeman, and two great-grandsons.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, July 17, 2015, at 1:00 p.m. at St. John's Episcopal Church, 1505 East Wooster St., Bowling Green, Ohio. In lieu of flowers, friends are asked to donate to Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, or the Southern Poverty Law Institute.

Arrangements have been entrusted with the Deck-Hanneman Funeral Home & Crematory, Bowling Green.

Online condolences as well as fond memories may be sent to the family by visiting

www.hannemnafh.com