Dora Alska ( - 1975)
Journalist, editor, publisher, Polish community leaderThe late Dora Alska
Pittsburgh -- A host of friends payed last tribute on Saturday, December 6 to the memory of the departed Dora Alska, wife of the late Victor Alski, and editor and publisher of the Pittsburczanin, Pittsburgher Polish Daily, who died on December 4 1975 in Pittsburgh. The funeral mass was a concelebrated service held at Holy Family Church in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh, one of the original Polish neighborhoods which the Alskis so faithfully served. Celebrant of the mass was Father Edward Maliszewski, Pastor of Holy Family Church.
If any person typified Pittsburgh "Polonia", it was the indomitable Dora Alska. A woman of diminutive stature, her size concealed an inner toughness and an iron disposition, a woman of unbounded energy. She gave unsparingly of herself to the end, writing column after column, pouring forth from her inexhaustible wealth of wisdom and information. She assumed the responsibility of continuing the publication of Pittsburczanin following the death of Victor Alski in 1957, and made it one of the most respected ethnic newspapers in the United States. In the course of her literary career, she numbered among her friends, the great and the near great, politicians, artists, newspaper people, corporate executives and just plain Joes. She radiated a warmth of spirit and an infectious smile. It is not generally known that she struggled over the past several years with the burden of rising costs and a declining readership, characteristic of many of America's ethnic news organs, but Dora Alska was determined to continue publishing in the belief that Pittsburczanin, was more than just an ethnic paper, but an essential element of America's "Polonia", a small corner of a way of life that she loved and believed should be encouraged and nurtured.
Father Maliszewski paid singular tribute to Mrs. Alska pointing out her will to live, her deep dedication to the Church, to America and to Poland; he spoke of her as a recipient at the Pro Ecclesia et Patria in Rome by the Holy Father, of her unselfish service to all ranks. It was indeed an inspiring service.
We are indeed grateful for an opportunity to have known such a dedicated woman who typified everything that is good and wholesome in the Polish immigrant; an unquenchable belief in God and the Church of her ancestors, in the goodness and the promise of America which has given Polish immigrants unlimited opportunities to better their existence, and above all for her persistence, her determination to maintain the Polish traditions in the New World in spite of the handicaps of continuing such traditions in the face of declining interest of the newer generations in our culture. Only her zeal in keeping alive the Polish culture in America maintained her.
Dora Alska was buried in Doylestown beside her husband Victor. Serving as pallbearers were: John Radzyminski, Wence Dolegowski, Henry Zygmunt, Joseph Zakrzewski, Zenon Cieslark and Theodore L. Humes (Huminski).
Source: Zgoda, February 1, 1976.