Jerzy "Jurek" M. Wrobel

Jurek was born in Poland in 1954 to Edmund and Jadwiga Wrobel. He was the first of three children, and had two younger sisters, Bozena and Ela. From a very early age he was fascinated by natural phenomena and demonstrated an aptitude for mathematics and the sciences which would later lead him to pursue a career as a physicist.

In 1984, he completed his PhD in physics at the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology. He then emigrated to the United States to join his wife, Theresa, whom he had met and married in 1980 while she was working as an English teacher in Poland. Jurek’s first job in the U.S. was at Baltimore Bagels in Rancho Bernardo, California! Then he obtained a series of positions as a postdoctoral researcher at several academic institutions in both Canada and the U.S. He and Theresa moved six times in the first five years of his working life. They rented U-Hauls and crossed the continent from California to Florida and back, from Vancouver, British Columbia to Ottawa, Ontario and finally to Boston Massachusetts. These moves always felt like great adventures and meant that Jurek got to see a lot of his newly adopted homeland. He loved the excitement and freedom of road trips.

In 1989, he was offered the position of assistant professor in the Physics Department at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. He accepted the job and spent the next 28 years there, teaching, doing research and sharing his enthusiasm for physics with students and faculty alike. He was passionate about physics and an inspired teacher. In 2016 he was awarded the title of Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor.

Jurek loved to travel and he made many trips back to Poland to visit friends and family. Additionally, after retiring, he and his wife, Theresa, travelled to Turkey, Tuscany and finally, in 2022, to Egypt for a cruise down the Nile, something they had dreamed of for years.

If there was one word to sum up his personality it was “joyous.” He was a person in whom the flame of life burned very brightly. He loved parties and social events, he loved to dance and he really came alive in the company of friends and family. For his wife, Theresa, his sisters, Bozena and Ela, and the family and friends who loved him, a great deal of joy and laughter has left the world. His death, at the age of 68, of liver cancer, has left us inconsolable at his loss.

Memorial Mass will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, April 29 at Guardian Angels Church, 1310 Westport Rd., Kansas City, MO 64111.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the American Cancer Society.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.mcgilleymidtownchapel.com for the Wrobel family.