Stanisław Marian Leszczycki was born on 8 May 1907, in Mielec. In 1926-1930 he studied geography at the Jagiellonian University under the guidance of professors L. Sawicki and J. Smoleński. In March 1933 he was promoted for a doctor on the basis of his dissertation Geographical research on the settlement in the Insular Beskids. In 1928- 1939 he held the post of an assistant and a senior assistant at the Institute of Geography. As early as in his Cracow years, he was already a true visionary interested in less popular issues of the applied geography (tourism industry, spatial planning, environmental movement). In 1939 he was arrested by the Gestapo during the Sonderaction Krakau "pacificatory" action and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and later to Dachau. In 1941 he was relieved from the camp due to his very bad health condition and then he worked, among others, in the Municipal Waterworks, in a section of the D.P. 's Assistance; and lectured at the underground Jagiellonian University courses. After the War he made a major contribution toward integration of the geographic societies originating from the pre-war period. The title of his habilitation thesis at the Jagiellonian University was Geographical research on the rural settlement of the Southern Anatolia (1945). After his habilitation procedures, he took the managerial post at the Institute of Geography of the Jagiellonian University and received a title of professor. In 1945-1950 he was actively engaged in politics at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland as Under-Secretary of State (the deputy of the Vice-minister of Foreign Affairs). He participated in the Potsdam Conference as an expert on borders issue. In 1948 he moved to the University of Warsaw where he took the post of the Head of the Department of the Anthropogeography at the Faculty of Humanities. By dint of his efforts the Uruski-Czetwertyński palace was rebuilt for the needs of the University and it houses the Faculty of Geography to the present day. He was the founding father of the Institute of Geography and its director as well as of the Department of the Economic Geography ( 1952- 1970). In 1954 he was nominated a full professor of economics at the University of Warsaw. In 1951 he took actions towards the organization of the Institute of Geography at the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and he performed the duties of its Director until his retirement. At the Polish Academy of Sciences he was the Deputy Scientific Secretary (1952-1957) and one of the presiding officers in 1952- 1968 and 1978-1980. In 1952 he was elected a corresponding member and a full member of the PAN in 1964. As the founder and the chairman of the Committee for Spatial Planning of Poland at the PAN he greatly contributed to strengthening the role of the territorial factor in the economic and social planning. Professor Leszczycki showed great interest and activity in many fields: scientific, didactic, and organizational. He was the initiator, animator, organizer, and the helmsman of Polish geographers' activities. He greatly contributed to the development and consolidation of the Polish geography and to its adequate positioning both in Poland and abroad. He reshaped Polish geography to be more empirical and applied. His greatest achievements refer to the methodology and history of geography; to the geography of manufacturing; to the spatial planning; and to the studies upon the human interaction with the natural environment. The Atlas of the Polish Industry; The National Atlas of Poland; The Atlas of the resources, values, and threads to the geographical environment of Poland were created under his guidance. He published over 1000 papers and promoted 28 doctors. Professor Leszczycki's merits to the development of geography were appreciated as well in Poland as vastly abroad. He obtained a high position in many important international geographic organizations - the International Geographical Union – and he was its Vice-president for two terms and its President in 1968- 1972, as the only Polish geographer in history. In 1988 he was elected a Honorary Prize-winner of the IGU. He was honoured with two national awards ( 1976, 1986), several awards of the Polish Academy of Sciences; and a honorary doctorship of three universities (of the Charles University in Prague, the Economic University in Poznań, and the University of Warsaw). He was also a honorary member of 15 foreign geographical societies. He was decorated with Polish, British, Hungarian, Finnish, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Czechoslovakian medals and orders. Stanisław Leszczycki died in Warsaw on June 13, 1996 and was buricd in Cracow.
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