Juchnowski, Msgr. Francis B.
(Nov. 18, 1929 - June 18, 2005)
The St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic Cemetery in Cheektowaga, New York, founded in 1889, is the resting place of many of Buffalo's Polish priests, war heroes, leaders, merchants, and others. It now has the first Juchnowski to settle in Buffalo and his grandson, Monsignor Francis B. Juchnowski, who was born in Buffalo at a time when the city of 567,905 inhabitants still had 15,648 persons from Poland.
His father, Charles E. Juchnowski, was a salesman for the family bakery in the shadows of Buffalo's stockyards and slaughter houses, and his mother, Wanda, who came from Michigan, worked in a shoe factory until he was born. His grandparents were pillars of Precious Blood Catholic Church. Although the parish was organized by Irish and German immigrants in 1899, the Irish pastor in 1917 urged the bishop to appoint a Polish priest to take his place because of the increasing number of Polish parishioners. Francis Juchnowski then received his early education in the parish school from Felician Sisters, a master's degree in theology at St. Bonaventure University and another degree in education from Canisius College. He studied for the priesthood at the diocesan seminary and the Polish Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan, and celebrated his First Mass in 1956 at Precious Blood.
In the coming years, due to the baby boom after the Second World War, he assisted the pastors of Polish parishes in East Arcade, Cheektowaga, Niagara Falls, Depew, and Buffalo with their heavy load. Beginning in 1967, he taught religion, Latin and conversational Polish in Bishop Turner High School, named after the Bishop of Buffalo from 1919 to 1936, who established 30 new parishes. To a certain extent the closing of the school in 1984 was a harbinger of more closings to come in Buffalo.
The co-principal of Bishop Turner High School in 1972 was appointed administrator of Our Lady of Grace Church, overlooking Chatauqua Lake at Woodlawn, and he later became pastor. At the same time he taught two years at Bishop Fallon High School, now defunct, in Buffalo.
He was appointed pastor of St. Bernard's in Buffalo in 1982. Although he retired in 2001, he spent the rest of his life in the same parish, not far from where he was born, and was named Prelate of Honor (Monsignor) by Pope John Paul II in 1984. His contemporaries held him in high esteem and elected him to various positions, including president of the Polish Clergy Association, chaplain in the Knights of Columbus, and diocesan director of the Holy Name Society. He died in Mercy Hosptal.From: Edward Pinkowski (2008)