Remembering Fred Wojcicki; Inman Senior Center Anniversay

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette

     Fred Wojcicki was a source of information for this column for many years. He died in 2017 in Hacienda Heights, California at age 91.

He lived his last 54 years in the Golden State but vividly remembered his first 37 years in the Amsterdam area.

Fred was born in 1926, the son of John and Mary Wojcicki. His family lived in a flat on Hibbard Street in the Polish neighborhood of Reid Hill.

The Wojcickis moved to Mathias Avenue when Fred was one year old. Neighbors included John Gomulka, who became mayor, and Andrew Celmer, who became police chief.

Wojcicki played baseball for St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church. When the team won, Reverend Francis Drzewiecki, their coach, treated the boys to sundaes at Krupczak’s Pharmacy on Hibbard Street, operated by the parents of Mary Anne Krupsak, who was elected New York lieutenant governor in the 1970s.

Only one of Wojcicki’s childhood chums had a bicycle but he let the other kids “ride around the block for five cents a trip.”

“Feeding Harry Demsky’s horse with carrots was a treat, too,” Wojcicki said.

Ragman Demsky was the father of actor Kirk Douglas.  Like Wojcicki, Douglas moved to California.

Private First Class Joseph Wojcicki, Fred’s older brother, went ashore during the Normandy invasion and died July 18 1944 after being wounded in St. Lo. He was 31 and had been a weaver at Mohawk Carpet.

Fred’s brother also worked at the Italian Gardens in Broadalbin, created by summer resident Katherine Husted but owned in the 1930s by Amsterdam button maker Arthur Chalmers. Fred sometimes visited his brother at work and saw Arthur Chalmers go by in his chauffeured limousine.

Fred served with the U.S. Navy Seabees in Guam and other locations in World War II. “We grew up fast in a few years during that war.”

He came back to Amsterdam after the war. His father died in 1949. Fred ran the Fort Johnson skating rink in the winters of 1949 and 1950.

When he worked for an insurance firm in Amsterdam, Fred got to know Sister William Aloysius Fitzpatrick, the long-time maternity department administrator at St. Mary's Hospital. “She was always fair and honest, great to patients and parents alike,” Wojcicki said.

Fred moved to California in 1963. He married Phyllis Wood Gibbons in 1967. Fred’s mother died that year. Fred worked at Standard Brands Paint Company in California until he retired in 1989. Phyllis died in 2005.

He typed letters frequently to my wife Audrey and me. His last letter acknowledged health problems and the Gazette column about him published the year before  “I have received ten letters from friends, including clippings from the column.”

His obituary ran in the Los Angeles Times, a newspaper he favored as he often sent clippings of stories from that West Coast media giant,

Fred was survived by a daughter, son, stepdaughter, stepson and extended family. He was predeceased by a son, brother and two sisters.

NOSTALGIA NEIGHBORHOOD

     The 40th anniversary of Amsterdam’s Inman Senior Services Center on Guy Psrk Avenue will be celebrated with a gala at the Center on June 21st.  Hope to see you there. 

The Center was named for Horace J. Inman. Inman created a paper box making company on what was called Spring Street in 1877.

He realized it was more profitable to make the machines to make boxes instead of making the boxes themselves, Inman’s eventually was owned by Thomas Leavenworth and Wallace Lindsay, The factory became the Inman Senior Services Center.

Over the years the Center has offered classes, trips and many other activities for seniors.

Bob Cudmore is a freelance writer.

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