Man of the year 2010

Alex was born in 1961 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to Dionizy and Irena Storozynski who had been driven from their Chomes in Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Army during WWII. In 1939, as a boy scout, Dionizy Storozynski fought with the Polish underground against the Soviet Army, and 1940, joined the French Army to fight against Nazi Germany. In 1944, he was a motorcycle scout for a tank division that took part in the invasion of Normandy. Alex's maternal grandfather, Wladyslaw Krzyzanowski was in the Polish Army and spent time imprisoned in Siberia, before escaping to join Anders Army where he became a tank commander in the allied campaign in Italy and the Battle of Monte Cassino.

These two decorated war heroes instilled a deep sense of Polish patriotism in Alex, and after The earned a Bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at New Paltz and a Master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, he traveled to Poland in 1985 where he received a post-graduate fellowship at the University of Warsaw. During this period after the martial law crackdown when members of the Solidarity movement had been driven underground, Alex worked as a researcher and translator for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Boston Globe, interviewing Lech Walesa and other Solidarity activists.

Alex began writing a doctoral thesis about how the Solidarity trade union had changed the propaganda of the Polish People's Republic, (P.R.L), and along with correspondents from. around the world, he attended press conferences held by the Communist government's press spokesman, Jerzy Urban. In a questionnaire that he sent to all of these journalists, Alex openly asked questions such as: "Does Urban Lie?" He also asked the correspondents to cite examples.

This criticism of the Communist regime caught the eye of the secret police, the dreaded Służba Bezpieczeństwa, the S.B., which began following Alex. On three occasions they interrogated him. Recently, Alex obtained a copy of his "Teczka," the classified dossier kept on him by the S.B. The conclusion of this Teczka reads as follows:

Alexander Storozynski (A.S.), born August 26.1961, US citizen, was a doctoral student at the University of Warsaw in 1985. During his stay in the PRL (Polish People's Republic) we conducted three interrogations with him, which had negative outcomes. He informed the U.S. embassy about these discussions. During these discussions he came across as arrogant, self-confident, with a critical perception of our version of reality. We have established that he was aware of operational methods used by our special services.

A.S., during his stay in the PRL, established and maintained close relationships with some opposition leaders and with their help tried to leave the country with photo negatives, whose content was undeniably anti-PRL. Additionally, in June 1986, during a customs control while crossing the border, it was revealed that he tried to smuggle illegal newsletters out of the country. Having considered all of the activities of A.S. During his stay in the PRL while on scholarship, he was entered into the registry of individuals considered undesirable in the PRL.

The Communist secret police made it impossible for Storozynski to complete his doctorate in Warsaw, and after two years in Poland, he returned to New York, where he pursued his career in journalism. Alex worked for eight years as an editorial board member of New York Daily News. At the Daily News he wrote editorials and op-ed columns on complex public policy issues that brought about changes in the lives of all New Yorkers. He was a member of the editorial board that won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing, the 1999 George Polk Award, the 1999 Sigma Delta Chi Award, the 1999 and 2001 Deadline Club Award, Associated Press editorial writing awards 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000, and the 1997 and 2001 Silurian Awards for editorial writing.

Alex was also the founding editor of amNew York and former city editor of the New York Sun. He has been published in the European edition of The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Post, Newsday, The Huffington Post, and other publications.

In 2004, the Polish magazine Przegląd called Storozynski "a new type of leader in the Polish community," and even though he was born in Brooklyn, they named him one of the "100 most influential Poles living abroad." In 2005, the Polish-American World named him "Man of the Year." In 2006, the President of Poland awarded him with the "Gold Cross of Service" for his articles about Poland. And in 2007 the American Center of Polish Culture in Washington, D.C. awarded him for his "distinguished achievement in the field of journalism."

In 2006, Storozynski traveled to Iraq to write about the Polish troops running the multinational zone in the provinces of Diwaniyah and Wasit near the Iranian border. In 2008, his essay "From Serfdom to Freedom: Polish Catholics Find A Refuge," was published in the book Catholics in New York, Society Culture, and Politics, 1808-1946, to coincide with the exhibit on Catholics at the Museum of the History of New York. Last year, Alex Storozynski's biography of Thaddeus Kosciuszko, The Peasant Prince:

Thaddeus Kosciusko and the Era of Revolution, was published by St. Martin's Press. The Thaddeus Kosciuszko book has received rave reviews from The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The New York Observer and numerous other publications. The book has won several awards, including the Templar Military History Award, the "Military Order of Saint Louis," Poland's "Ministry of Foreign Affair's Laureate Diploma, " The Polish American Historical Association's "Oskar Halecki Prize" and "The Tadeusz Walendowski Prize" from the Polish Library of Washington D.C.

In November, 2008, Alex was elected The President and Executive Director of The Kosciuszko Foundation, where he works to promote Polish culture and raise money for scholarships for scholars of Polish descent.