Walter Plywaski was born in Lodz, Poland in 1929. At the age of 10, he and his family were forced into the Lodz ghetto, where they survived four years before transportation to Auschwitz with his adoptive brother and cousin Bill. He last saw his mother when she was forced into a line that led to the gas chamber, and he witnessed the fatal beating of his father.
Eventually Walter and Bill escaped from Dachau and were taken in by a U.S. Army unit. They arrived separately in the U.S. at different times, Bill in Portland and Walter in Philadelphia. Walter joined the U.S. Air Force in 1948 and served four years including a stint as a radio maintenance chief in Okinawa during the Korean War.
He followed his brother to OSU in 1953, majoring first in English before switching to Electrical Engineering. After OSU, Walter worked as an engineer for several defense contractors and for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He later became a high-tech entrepreneur and consultant. Now living near Boulder, Colorado, Walter speaks regularly about his experiences in the Holocaust, including during a visit to the OSU campus in 2004.
Degrees
- BSEE 1957 - EECS