Polish WWII pilot Jerzy Glowczewski, 97, dies of coronavirus

NEW YORK – Jerzy Glowczewski, a Polish-born fighter pilot who flew World War II missions with Britain’s Royal Air Force after Nazi Germany invaded his country, and who later was an architect in Poland and the United States, has died in New York City. He was 97.

Glowczewski died April 13 in a nursing home of complications from COVID-19, his daughter Klara Glowczewska told The New York Times.

Her father is believed to have been the last surviving member of a group of Polish exiles who joined the Royal Air Force to fight the Nazis.

Born in Warsaw in 1922, Glowczewski fled Poland with his stepfather when the Germans invaded in 1939. He joined the Polish army in exile in 1941, served with the Allies in Egypt and in Libya, and then travelled to Britain to train as a pilot.

He flew on 100 combat missions and was awarded the Polish Cross of Valor three times.

He returned to Poland in 1947, earned a degree in architecture and contributed to the rebuilding of Warsaw from wartime ruins.

He moved to the United States in the 1960s and taught architecture in his later years at the Pratt Institute in New York.

Survivors include his daughter Klara and two grandchildren.