Richard G. Pohoski, BEng 79, had already lived half a century and survived World War II, when he decided to pursue a university degree in mechanical engineering. With a young family to support and 18 years of service with Pratt & Whitney, Pohoski knew that a degree was a pre-requisite for professional advancement. The question of a degree “kept coming up during employee evaluations,” says Pohoski, now retired and living with his wife in the south shore of Montreal.

After enrolling part-time at Concordia University in 1974, he switched to full-time studies and took a pay cut, while maintaining a full workload at Pratt & Whitney. Understandably, “it gave me a great sense of accomplishment when I was finally done,” Pohoski says. Reflecting back on his academic years, he lovingly credits his wife Maria for her patience, and his daughter Jane, for typing his papers.

Pohoski’s desire to earn a degree in his 50s was admired by many. Dr. Georgios Vatistas, a professor in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, was Pohoski’s classmate in the late 1970s and remembers him fondly. “To this day, I bring him up as an example when my 30-something students complain about getting old and still being in school.” Dr. Subhash Rakheja, also from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, laughs as he remembers Pohoski pulling him out of pubs to get back to studying. “He was a father-figure to many of us,” says Rakheja.

Pohoski immigrated to Montreal in 1949 with a Warsaw Polytechnique technical background. He first worked as a carpenter, earning $1.50 a day, building pews for a church in Laval. Eventually, he would work with Montreal’s water filtration system and then as a toolmaker and designer for machinery and aircraft companies. In 1956, he began employment at Pratt and Whitney and worked there until 1991, when he retired from his position as supervisor in the engine design group at the Mississauga plant.

While many would consider returning to school a courageous feat, Pohoski’s greatest act of bravery would be recognized four years after his retirement, and 51 years after the fact. In 1995, the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland, on behalf of that country’s president, presented Pohoski with the Krzyz Walecznych Medal and the Order Virtuti Militari, equivalent to the British Victoria Cross. Earlier that year, he received the Warszawski Krzyz Powstanczy Medal.

Pohoski doesn’t dwell on the past, but if you ask him about it, his memory is remarkable. As a 19-year-old soldier, while wounded and under heavy bombing and artillery fire, he led 160 people to safety during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

Pohoski was one of a limited number of sewer guides who helped hundreds of desperate civilians hiding in the ruins to escape death, while waiting for someone to take them to safety. “It took three hours of crawling under German lines in a sewer that was three feet high and filled with muddy, smelly sewage,” remembers Pohoski. “Eventually, we emerged from the ruins of the ‘Old Town’ into ‘City Center’ and to safety. Luck was on our side,” he says.

Earlier this year, Pohoski and his wife moved back to Montreal to be closer to their family. He enjoys playing bridge, swimming daily, and spending time with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was delighted to meet up with fellow alumni at the Faculty’s alumni chapter launch on September 30, 2004.