Boleslaw "Bolek" Skwarek

Boleslaw (Bolek) Skwarek, a resident of Rocky Hill from January, 1979 to January, 2024, died at Hartford Hospital after a brief illness on February 15, 2024. Bolek was predeceased by his parents, Franciszek Skwarek (in 1938) and Stefania (Sularz) Skwarek (in 1972); his wife, Joanna (Jaska) Luberda Skwarek, to whom Bolek was married on September 27, 1957, who died on May 30, 2023; his older brother, Walter Skwarek, who died on February 27, 2007; and his older sister, Wladyslawa Skwarek-Kamrowska. Bolek was born on May 4, 1926 in Sosnowiec, Poland. During World War II Bolek was captured by the Nazis in Rabka Zdroj, Poland during a grocery run for the family and imprisoned in or about 1942 in Berlin. After the execution of the peace treaty, concluding World War II, in 1945, he eventually escaped via horseback to Poland. For the next several years, Bolek, applying his remarkable mechanical talent, worked in Poland variously as a plumber, electrician, cobbler, toolmaker, movie theater projectionist, bridge rod fabricator, and automobile mechanic. There was virtually no item of equipment, article or machine that Bolek could not repair. After postwar life in Poland became increasingly austere, Bolek, Joanna, and their infant daughter, Margaret, immigrated to the United States on December 19, 1962, residing until mid-1970 in various apartments in Hartford, where Bolek used his skills for a variety of companies. Like Neil Diamond’s musical character who was “lost between two shores,” and missing the motherland, they returned to, and resided in, Warsaw, Poland from June, 1970 to September, 1971. Once there, however, the love for his homeland dissipated, and the family re-immigrated, for good, in September, 1971 back to the United States via the classic steamship Stefan Batory. The family thereafter resided in various apartments in Hartford before settling finally in Rocky Hill in 1979. Bolek spent most of his American career, commencing in December, 1972, applying his mechanical talent as a highly skilled master machinist at Atlantic Machine Tool Company, which became Atlantic Aerospace, then Atlantic Textron, Corporation, in Newington, retiring therefrom after many years of dedicated and distinguished service. Upon his retirement he devoted much of his time to cultivating his sprawling vegetable garden, fruit trees and flower beds in his capacious plot of land in Rocky Hill, frequently clambering up ladders, maintaining the dwelling, and pruning his arboreal subjects well into his nineties. Bolek won the gene pool lottery with his longevity, having made it to age ninety-seven, robust health, mechanical aptitude, and signature full head of long, white, flowing locks. He was the quintessential polymath. Bolek is survived by his daughter, Margaret S. Amato, and her husband, Thomas A. Amato, of Manchester; his son, Walter Skwarek, and his wife, Michelle C. Skwarek, of Higganum; his grandchildren, Michael J. Amato, of Washington, D.C., Mark A. Amato, of Washington, D.C., Melanie A. Amato, of Quincy, Massachusetts, Amber Barnett, and her husband, Steven Barnett, of Westbrook, Shawna Skwarek, of Southington, and Aaron Skwarek, of Higganum. Bolek is further survived by his great granddaughter, Olivia Barnett, of Westbrook. Bolek also leaves behind his younger sister, Sabina Skwarek-Swistek, of Poland; his nephew, Andrzej S. Kamrowski, of Santa Monica, California; and his nieces, Malgorzata D. Kamrowska, Elzbieta I. Kamrowska Dybowska, Maria Kamrowska, and Eva Szayner, all of Poland. A time of visitation will be held Friday, February 23, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon at D’Esopo Funeral Chapel, 277 Folly Brook Boulevard, Wethersfield with a 12 p.m. Prayer Service to follow. Burial will be in Village Cemetery, Marsh Street, Wethersfield. For directions or online tributes, please visit www.desopofuneralchapel.com.