Włodzimierz Rodziewicz (1908-1976)
Head of Department of Inorganic Chemistry, 1945-1976
He was born in Rożyszcze (Łuck district, Volhynia) on Aug. 7, 1909 and attended high school there. W. Rodziewicz studied chemistry at the Technical University of Warsaw (Warsaw Polytechnic), from which he graduated in 1934. A developing interest in chemistry led him to take up a post as an assistant in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, which was headed by Prof. Tadeusz Miłobędzki – the author of superb and very popular book on analytical chemistry which was used by few generation of chemists.
W. Rodziewicz received training for X-ray physics in the Department of Physics at Warsaw University under the guidance of Prof. S. Pieńkowski and Prof. A. Sołtan. During WW II he worked in Łuck – first as a worker in a mill, then as a lab assistant and lab manager.
In July 1945 W. Rodziewicz arrived to Gdansk as a member of another operational group of scientists to start the rebuilding and reactivation of the technical university. He was one of the first co-organizers of the Faculty of Chemistry. He formed the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and became its first head after WW II and the fourth one in the history of this department. His famous predecessors were: Otto Ruff, Hans von Wartenberg and Wilhelm Klemm.
He received doctor's degree in technical sciences in 1949. His dissertation was on mixed chromium oxides. In 1950 he was promoted to the post of associate professor and from 1963 he was full professor.
W. Rodziewicz held several academic positions: he was the first post-war vice-Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry (1945-48 and 1950-51) and three-time the Dean (1951-53, 1958-60, 1960-62). From 1969 to 1974 he was the Director of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology. Worth mentioning was his activity as editor-in-chief of the Technical University textbooks. Due to the fact that during first post-war years one could observe the noticeable shortage of academic staff, W. Rodziewicz organized and headed the Deparment of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at Medicine Academy in Gdansk (1945-50). He gave lectures 24 hours a week at both universities and helped to teach new assistants in the laboratories. More than 6000 students attended his lectures on inorganic chemistry, general chemistry, technical chemistry, analytical chemistry (qualitative and quantitative). Most of them he examined personally. He promoted many MSc Eng. graduates and 17 doctors. He was also the special promotor of Prof. M. G. Voronkov for doctor honoris causa title. M. G. Voronkov was world-famous organosilicon chemist and the director of Siberian Branch of the Soviet Union Academy of Sciences. Seven of the doctors promoted by W. Rodziewicz became the full professors lately.
W. Rodziewicz was the co-author of 49 papers including 29 on new field of organosilicon chemistry as well as 4 patents, 2 editorials and 8 reviews on books and monographs.
The last decades of XX century were often called the Silicon Age due to silicon-based computation-revolution. Also the other organosilicon compounds (silicones) played important role as advanced materials and gave the field of materials much of its present momentum. E.g. it is interesting fact that the first human being on the moon used the special boots with the silicon-made sole. The fast development of organosilicon chemistry took only place after WW II and W. Rodziewicz was one of the first precursors in this field, and undisputable the first one in Poland. He laid the foundations of silicon chemistry which was then developed also in Lodz, Warsaw and Poznan. He wrote many papers and promoted 11 Masters of Science and 12 doctors, and was the editor-in-chief of the first Polish monograph “Organosilicon Chemistry” written by T. Jasiński.
W. Rodziewicz had a reputation for his sense of humor and some of his jokes stood longtime in the students memory. E.g. during the lecture on properties of acids and bases he explained how to easily remember the indicators color: “phenolphthalein is like a girl – it basically reddens (in bases)”. If he felt that the audience reacted to his words, he used to say: “once if a girl was ashamed, she reddened – nowadays girls are ashamed when they redden!”. While the audience burst out laughing, he remained poker-faced.
He was dedicated fan of the football club “Lechia”. The students used to say that if “Lechia” lost its game on Sunday, Monday was a very bad day for meeting Prof. Rodziewicz.
He liked to play bridge occasionally. The students talked about very humorous event concerning that: „Once he played bridge in his friend's, Prof. Wawryk, house which was located only one block away. The game dragged on quite long, and Mrs. Wawryk offered him to stay for the night in their house because it was raining. He agreed and disappeared for while. After few minutes somebody rang the door-bell – it was Prof. Rodziewicz, wet with the rain, holding a small bundle. The amazed hosts were told that he had to go home and to bring his pajamas!!!”.
Prof. Rodziewicz was very popular with the students. He knew the full names of all students and he used to monitor their progress all the time. Prof. Rodziewicz died on March 8, 1976. His funeral at the Srebrzysko Cemetary was attended by unprecedented number of students. He remains in our memory as a competent, honest and modest teacher. He was my Master.
Author: Wiesław Wojnowski
English version: Stanisław Konieczny
