El Dorado Resident Honored
by Former Hometown

With His Own Street Name & Sign

Driving past the fifth house on the right hand side, off entrance #2, a yellow stucco mobile home in Palos Verdes South has a sign proclaiming "John W. Wozny Way",--a gift from the City of Chicago Heights to former stateside residents John and Patricia Wonzy who made El dorado Ranch their permanent home last December. The sign was presented to John at a testimonial dinner attended by more than 100 persons given in his honor on October 20, 2000.

Wozny authored a two-volume work "Growing Up Polish - The History of the Polish Pioneers"; detailing the trials of immigrants who settled in Chicago Heights (an industrial suburb in the early 1900's).

In a book review by the Polish American Journal, a nationwide monthly, the books were called: "A first-rate effort of a person's extraordinary ability to gather, compile, and record for perpetuity the history of a Polish settlement."Wallace Ozog, president of Polish Roman Catholic Union, an ethnic fraternal organization attending the dinner, requested copies of the books for preservation in the Polish Museum of America.

Proclamations from the City Councils of Chicago Heights, Illinois, where Wozny was born; and from Steger, Illinois, where the Woznys lived for fifty years, were read at the affair.

The street in the suburb where the author-historian was born and lived was named "John W. Wozny Way".

Last October the author-historian was instrumental in obtaining a Sister City relationship between Chicago Heights, Illinois, and Wadowice, Poland (the birthplace and hometown of Pope John Paul II). A feat that gathered statewide media attention. For this accomplishment, a resolution passed by the Illinois State Senate proclaiming Wozny as "Polish-American Citizen of the Year" and this was read a the dinner.

Dr. Richard Felicetti, director of the Chicago Heights - San Benedetto, Italy Sister City Committee, presented the author-historian with "the Pope's Dessert" a chocolate-almond cake direct from the Vatican.

U.S. Congress Member from the district where Woznys lived, Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., sent a congratulatory letter. He commended Mr. Wozny for his work establishing international goodwill between the U.S. city and the famous city in Poland.