Captain Zbigniew Sulatycki, an Honorary Doctor of GMU, Has Died
It is with great regret and sadness that we learned of the passing of
Captain Zbigniew Sulatycki,
an Honorary Doctor of Gdynia Maritime University, the founder and Honorary President of the ‘Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski’ Maritime Economic Association and the Chair of the Maritime Convent.
Honour to his memory!
The Rector, Senate, and academic community at Gdynia Maritime University
extend their deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased.
Remembrance
Zbigniew Sulatycki was born on 23rd August 1933 in Skarżysko–Kamienna, Poland, into a traditional patriotic, upright and hard-working Polish family - values which would accompany him his whole life.
An engineer and a master mariner, he served as captain on ships in Bangladesh, Saudia Arabia, Greece, and Belgium.
In 1951, Zbigniew Sulatycki graduated from the Electrical Technical College in Wrocław and began further study at the Ship and Port Operations Technical College in Szczecin. An outstanding student, his ability was recognised by the captain of all captains – Konstantine Maciejewicz, and thanks to his efforts, he was transferred to the State Maritime School in Szczecin, where Maciejewicz was director. However, before completing his studies at the School, Captain Sulatycki was expelled by the communist authorities for withholding information on his father, who before WWII was an officer in the Polish army.
After completing military service in the Navy, Captain Sulatycki began his adventurous seagoing career working for Polish Ocean Liners, starting out as a seaman and rising through the ranks to captain. He also worked as an instructor and youth educator on the legendary Polish sailing ship, the Dar Pomorza.
As a captain, he sailed on ships from the POL fleet and those of foreign operators. In 1973, he graduated from the Higher Maritime School in Gdynia. The next steps in his career saw Zbigniew Sulatycki working for the Maritime Council in Gdynia, Gdynia port, the Baltic Sea Interport, and as an independent expert to the Polish Trade Association.
In the 1990s, he became Deputy Secretary of State in the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Economy under the government of Jan Olszewski and Hanna Suchocka. He co-authored many reports on the state of the environment in Gdansk Bay, fisheries, and the shipbuilding industry.
In 1995, he founded the Polish Maritime Economy Association, and for many years functioning as its President, and later becoming an honorary president. In December 2016, Captain Zbigniew Sulatycki was appointed by the Minster for Maritime Economy as a member of the Maritime Convent, which acts as an advisory, consultative, and opinion-forming body to the Ministry, and which he
Zbigniew Sulatycki was presented by Polish President Andrzej Duda with the Grand Cross of Polonia Restituta - Poland’s second oldest distinction - on 8th February 2016. That same year, he was also awarded Bene Merito Badge of Honour. In 2020, he was also awarded the Pro Bono Poloniae medal in recognition of his contributions to the commemoration of Polish independence traditions.
Zbigniew Sulatycki was a man of the sea, a Polish patriot, social worker and activist. He worked for the development of a strong, competitive maritime industry, and above all, the return of the Polish flag to the seas and oceans of the world. Zbigniew Sulatycki became the second person in the history of Gdynia Maritime University to be honoured with the title Doctor honoris causa.
In September 2022, the Research and Training Centre for Ship Management in Iława, known as the ‘School of Captains’ was named after Captain Zbigniew Sulatycki.
Captain Sulatycki maintained a connection with the University for many years. During the inauguration of the academic year 2022/2023, he gave a speech on board Dar Młodzieży in which the University’s new students with the following words:
As a sailor, and then as a minister, I had the opportunity to visit almost the whole world, I tell you, it’s really something. When many of you sail out into the deep aboard that ship, you will see just how beautifully everything works! Man alone is nothing. Man merely carries out certain commands he has been given. But faced with this power, the power of the sea, he is forced to behave in a certain way, to fight to survive! He must be part of a team, a crew. Only together can we really achieve something for ourselves, for our families. For our families at home, but also for our country.
A man of the sea. A patriot. A social activist. An educator of many generations of Polish seafarers.