MUNCIE, Ind. -- On both sides of the Atlantic Ocean today, friends of Stanislaw Mrozowski remember the former Ball State University physics and astronomy adjunct professor as a tremendous influence on their lives.

Mrozowski died Sunday age 97 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after a storied career in education and research.

"He was very kind and generous to Ball State, " said Dave Ober, chair of Ball State’s physics and astronomy department. "He was extremely creative in terms of research that spanned many decades until the last several years. I think he was an outstanding advocate for the physics profession."

Colleagues of Mrozowski at the Institute of Experimental Physics at the University of Gdansk in Poland, faxed Ober their condolences after learning of his death.

"Professor Mrozowski inspired our working during our stay at Buffalo and Muncie as well as when he was in Gdansk. It is impossible to measure his influence on our personal development. For us, he was the pioneer of atomic and molecular spectroscopic studies in Poland and of carbon studies in the U.S. His personality and enthusiasm will continue to inspire us."

A native of Poland, Mrozowski came to Ball State in 1974 after his retirement at the State University of New York at Buffalo to teach and continue his research. He received an honorary degree from Ball State in 1993.

A home on Tillotson Avenue was converted into the Irena Mrozowski Physics House, named for his late wife. It was only recently sold by the university to private ownership and the funds will establish a scholarship program in his name.

Ruth Ann Miller, the physics and astronomy department’s administrative coordinator, said Mrozowski set high standards for his peers and students while teaching at Ball State.

"He was a very inspirational person and all our professors felt like they were back in graduate school when they were around him," Miller said. "He was also known as a demanding professor, He was an outstanding teacher but quite demanding."

Mrozowski was born Feb. 9, 1902 in Warsaw, Poland. As an avid teen-age astronomer, he organized fellow students to do research and publish a quarter astronomy magazine. The organization eventually became the Polish Society of Amateur Astronomers, which today has about 3,000 members and publishes a monthly journal.

He completed his doctoral work in physics from the University of Warsaw in 1931 and was on sabbatical to do research in the United States when World War II broke out with the German invasion of his homeland. The war and subsequent Communist takeover forced him to live abroad for much of his life.

During the war Mrozowski briefly worked on the Manhattan Project at Princeton University and then conducted research at the University of Chicago. After the war he organized a carbon research laboratory for the Great Lakes Carbon Corp., in Morton Grove, Ill., and then at SUNY-Buffalo from 1949 to 1972.

In addition to an honorary degree from Ball State, Mrozowski received several awards for his life’s work, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Turin in Poland and the Polish government presented him with the Polonia Restituta Cross, his native country’s highest civilian award, in 1993.