Waclaw Jan Kroczek

Tarnowskie Góry, Silesia Voivodeship, Poland; (Acting) Director for GRG Supercentenarian Research and Database Division; also GRG Correspondent for Poland & Nordic Countries E-mail: wjk.grg@gmail.com; Voice: (0048) 600109523

GRG Correspondent for Poland and Nordic Countries (since 2013), GRG Admin Assistant (2015-2018), GRG Administrator for Case Validation (since 2018), (Acting) Director for GRG Supercentenarian Research and Database Division (2023-present) Participant of many domestic and foreign scientific conferences. In 2016, he won the first prize in a public health session held at Gdańsk 24th International Student Scientific Conference, for his work “The emergence of supercentenarians in Poland and the study of human longevity”. He participated in conferences organized by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Copenhagen, Denmark (2015) Tallinn, Estonia (2016) Rostock, Germany, (2017) and Paris, France (2019). He proved the existence of the population of supercentenarians (people over 110 years of age) in modern Poland. By 2023, he described 30 such cases. He visited and interviewed twelve of them, including Aleksandra Dranka of Harklowa (1903-2014), Jadwiga Szubartowicz of Lublin (1905-2017) and Tekla Juniewicz of Gliwice (1906-2022), Czeslawa Lasiewicz of Monki [Pol. Mońki] (1907-2018), Irena Smialowska of Legionowo (1908-2019), Antonina Partyka of Bojadla [Pol. Bojadła] (1908-2020), Stanislaw Kowalski of Swidnica [Pol. Świdnica] (1910-2022), Emilia Borchert of Warsaw (1910-2020), Wanda Szajowska of Kraków (1911-2022) Agnieszka Strzalka of Kolonia Sol [Pol. Kolonia Sól] (1912-2022), Jadwiga Żak-Stewart of Łódź (1912-present), and Irena Sila-Nowicka of Warsaw (1913-present). In cooperation with the closest family and through the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Lwów, he reached the original birth record of Tekla Juniewicz, proving her status as the oldest Polish woman in modern history and the first who crossed the barrier of 112 and 113 years in Polish history. In 2014-2015, he participated in an international scientific team’s travels to Verbania, Piedmont, Italy, where they met and interviewed several times the oldest living European at the time and the last surviving person in the world born before 1900, Emma Morano (1899-2017). In 2017, he travelled to Sprockhoevel, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, where he twice met and interviewed Mathilde Mange (1906-2019), who later became the first German woman who reached the age of 113. He lectured at the University of the Third Age. He is a regular columnist for Gazeta Senior, a nationwide magazine devoted to the social issues of the elderly. In 2018 he took part in a competition organized by the MEP Jerzy Buzek “(Un)ordinary women – unusual stories. Silesian women on the 100th anniversary of independence”, in which he brought closer the figure of Stefania Zacharska (1906-2016), a well-deserved teacher from Tarnowskie Góry, who lived to 109 years and was also one of the oldest Polish women. Based on his experience, he hypothesized that the secret to longevity, which supercentenarians state independently of each other, is, among others, the resistance to stress, optimism, strong family ties and Scandinavian moderation, the golden mean.
Wacław Jan Kroczek also cooperated with Guinness World Records to validate of two candidates for the title of World’s Oldest Man from Poland: Alexander Imich of New York, USA (1903-2014) and Israel Kristal of Haifa, Israel (1903-2017). Due to the discovery of sufficiently strong evidence from the archives that meet modern age validation standards, compiled in the monograph “Supercentenarians” by the Belgian demographer Dr. Michel Poulain, the Guinness World Records officially recognized both (Alexander Imich in 2014, Israel Kristal in 2016) as the oldest living men in the world in their time. He appeared many times in various domestic and foreign media in connection with important events and reports from the niche of longevity.
On Dec. 10, 2020, there was published the new monograph by Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research entitled “Exceptional Lifespans”, for which Kroczek authored and/or co-authored three chapters: Centenarians, Semi-supercentenarians and the Emergence of Supercentenarians in Poland, Validation of 113-Year Old Israel Kristal as the World’s Oldest Man, Age 115+ in the USA: An Update.
On Apr. 14, 2021, he visited Stanislaw Kowalski on his 111th birthday, the first man in Poland who turned 110 years of age, becoming the first male supercentenarian in Poland. On June 10, 2022, he visited Tekla Juniewicz on her 116th birthday – the first validated 116-year old supercentenarian living north to the 50th parallel.
In 2022, Waclaw Jan Kroczek was the leader of the tech team responsible for the developement of the new modern GRG website and technology under the link: www.grg-supercentenarians-org.
On January 23, 2023, Waclaw Jan Kroczek founded the World Supercentenarian Forum, a new community intended to be welcoming and inclusive place for discussions on healthy senility, human longevity and the world’s oldest people, while respecting the scientific integrity, ethics, and principles.
On January 30, 2023, he travelled to Łódź, Łódź Voivodeship, where he met and interviewed supercentenarian Jadwiga Żak-Stewart. He would later re-visit her on her 111th birthday.
On February 27, 2023, he met and interviewed Colonel Kazimierz Klimczak, who was then the oldest living man in Poland and the oldest living 1939 September campaign veteran, as well as the oldest living 1944 Warsaw Uprising veteran.
On March 12, 2023, he met and interviewed Irena Sila-Nowicka who is wife of the late Wladyslaw Sila-Nowicki, a notable figure for Poland’s 20th century.

On June 6, 2023, he participated in Anna Gawłowska‘s 110th birthday, recognizing her in the name of the GRG as the second supercentenarian in the history of Silesia Voivodeship.

On Aug. 15, 2023, he has taken the role of the GRG Correspondent for the Nordic Countries (including Denmark, its autonomous regions: Faroe Islands and Greenland, Sweden, and Norway).