Stanislaw John Szpak's Obituary
Dr. Stanislaw (Stan) Szpak was born on November 17, 1920 in Schenectady, NY and he died on October 12, 2016, one month short of his 96th birthday in San Diego, CA. His family returned to Poland when he was two years old where he grew up and attended a Polish University, receiving degrees in Chemical Engineering. It was during his time in college that he woke up one morning to the sound of airplanes passing over his house on their way to bomb a small airport a few miles away which was the start of the German invasion of Poland during World War II. Stan did not register as required by the occupiers and instead became part of the resistance, using his technical skills to make soap and tan leather which his family used to barter for other goods. During this time he accidentally triggered a land mine that caused him to lose sight in his left eye and also hearing loss.
When the war ended and Poland was under Russian influence Stan, who was a U.S. citizen by virtue of his birth in the U.S, applied to return to the U.S. and was successful in 1948. He got a job at the General Electric plant electroplating facility in Schenectady, NY. After a few years, he resigned to attend the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a PhD under Prof. John Bockris. Upon receipt of his PhD, he relocated to the San Francisco CA area where he worked for Lockheed. After a few years he began a Government career by accepting a civil service position at the Vallejo Naval Shipyard. It was while he was working there that he met and married his wife, Bozica who had grown up in Serbia during the war before she immigrated to the U.S. In 1972 they relocated to San Diego, CA to work for a predecessor to the SPAWAR Systems Center Navy laboratory.
In 1989 following the announcement by Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons that they had produced nuclear reactions in electrochemical cells, Stan switched his focus to understanding that process which at the time was known as Cold Fusion but is more commonly known today as Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR). Among his many accomplishments, he is credited with being the first to use codeposition to prepare the Palladium cathode which has since been successfully used by scientists world-wide. During his career he co-authored numerous technical papers and was also an inventor on several patents. Following retirement as a government employee, he accepted an Emeritus Position at the lab which allowed him to continue to work on LENR.
Upon the announcement of his death, the New Energy Times posted an obituary that lists some of his many accomplishments at:
U.S. Navy LENR Researcher Stanislaw Szpak Dies
In 2015, Cold Fusion Now videotaped an interview which can be seen at:
Following Nature’s Documents Stan Szpak LENR Co-deposition
Upon hearing the news of his death, numerous messages of condolences and appreciation for his accomplishments have been received from the world-wide LENR community of scientists.
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