Gdynia Maritime University GMU

It is with much sadness that Gdynia Maritime University informs the academic community of the passing of Professor Andrzej Perepeczko at the age of 93. A graduate of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the State Maritime School in the year 1950, dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Higher Maritime School, a writer, an educator and friend of many generations of pupils and students (he worked for the Maritime School for more than 50 years), the author of 20 textbooks and academic scripts.

During the years 1966-1968, he was a member of the interministerial commission for preparation for the establishment of the Higher Maritime School. From 1990 until 1993, he was the dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Higher Maritime School. In the year 2000, he completed his doctoral thesis at the University of Gdańsk in historical sciences. Professor Andrzej Perepeczko was the author of 120 books, mainly dedicated to maritime topics.

The winner of a series of literary and teaching awards, he was awarded the National Education Commission Medal, the Cross of the National Army and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

Andrzej Perepeczekko died on 9 November 2023. We join his family and friends in mourning his passing. 

The funeral Mass will be celebrated on Thursday 16 November 2023 at 11:00 am
at the Collegiate Church of the Most Holy Heart of Jesus at ul. Zator Przytockiego 3
in Gdansk Wrzeszcz. 
The funeral will take place on the same day at 12:30 at the Central  "Srebrzysko" Cemetery
on ul. Srebrniki 2, Gdansk

Senior Mechanical Officer, Dr Andrzej Perepeczko (1930-2023) - was a graduate of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the State Maritime School in the year 1950, dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Higher Maritime School, a writer, an educator and friend of many generations of pupils and students, the author of 20 textbooks and academic scripts, and more than 120 books.

During the years 1966-1968, he was a member of the interministerial commission working in preparation for the establishment of the Higher Maritime School. From 1990 until 1993, he was the dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Higher Maritime School. In the year 2000, he completed his doctoral thesis at the University of Gdańsk in historical sciences. The professor was the author of 120 books, mainly dedicated to maritime topics. The winner of a series of literary and teaching awards, he was awarded the National Education Commission Medal, the Cross of the National Army and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

During the Second World War, he lived in Warsaw where he attended the clandestine Stefan Batory Gymnasium school. After the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising, he escaped to Radomsko, where he joined the Szare Szeregy (Grey Privates) - the Scouts of the National Army. In 1946 he graduated from the gymnasium, after passing the so-called 'small matura' exams and relocated to Gdansk, where he studied at the State Secondary School for Ship Construction under Director Aleksandra Potrurała. He was then admitted to the third year at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the State Maritime School. As the son of a prewar officer, he did not qualify for a year's service in the Navy in 1950. He served as a stoker, then an engine minder, and finally a machine assistant. In 1953, he was removed from the merchant fleet, displaced from the coast and incorporated into the 1st Labour Battalion (the so-called "miner's battalion") in Oświęcim. He worked as a mining soldier for two years. In October 1956, he began his evening studies at the Gdansk University of Technology, working at the Central Office of Ship Structures. In 1963, he was admitted to the State Maritime School, where he gave lectures and periodically sailed as a mechanic. In 1966-1968, he was a member of an inter-ministerial committee preparing the establishment of the Maritime Higher School, in which he was also a lecturer. He also sailed on training ships, commercial ships and under foreign flags. During the years 1990-1993, he was dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Higher Maritime School. In 2000, he defended his PhD in historical sciences at the University of Gdansk. Professor Perepeczko was the author of 120 books published since 1960 by Wydawnictwo Morskie, mainly dedicated to maritime topics. Among them is a series of stories for young people about Wild Ants, a two-volume history of the Gdynia Maritime School, and maritime historical novels (translated into Czech, German, English and Russian). He is also the author or co-author of 20 textbooks and academic scripts.

In 2020, he said about himself:

70 years ago I graduated from the State Maritime School in Gdynia, which gave me the chance to go beyond the "iron curtain" inflicted on Poland by the Soviet Union. 60 years ago, my first book was published and published at a time referred to as the "post-October thaw." Forty years ago, I received the highest maritime diploma, and before turning 35 I became an independent, but nevertheless "contract" member of academic staff, namely a docent, and a few years later a professor, before gaining promotion on a foreign ship to the position of chief engineer. 30 years ago, I was offered the position of deputy rector at the Maritime Higher School, which I did not take up in order to instead become the dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

Below is a translation of the words of his final poem:

Slowly I am leaving, step by step…

My thoughts growing muddy and my eyes have seen their best.

Behind me - a cluster of memories; in front - only murk…

How long is left?

A day?

A month?

A year?

Honour to his memory!