Roman Tarnawski

Roman Tarnawski, 73, of Marseilles passed away Friday, April 9, 2021 at AMITA Holy Family Medical Center in Des Plaines, IL.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at noon on Saturday, April 17 at St. Columba Church, with Rev. David Kipfer officiating. Visitation will be from 11 am to noon, prior to services, at the church. Ottawa Funeral Home & Crematory has been entrusted with arrangements.

Roman was born January 4, 1948 in Swiebodzin, Poland, to Jan and Czeslawa (Nowicka) Tarnawski. When he was 21 he crossed the border into Czechoslovakia, and later into Austria in order to escape communism. He then emigrated to Sweden. In 1980 he settled permanently in the United States which became his second homeland. He married Elzbieta Skoluba on September 16, 1989 in Chicago. He was a member of St. Columba Church in Ottawa.

He was actively involved in politics, specifically Polish and Polish-American. He organized and took part in a hunger strike in December 1981 in front of the Polish Communist Consulate in Chicago in protest of the imposition of martial law in his native Poland. For many years he was very active in Polish-American political organizations. In 1995 Roman bought a house with his family in Sheridan, IL. He enjoyed gardening and had a large koi pond. He was planning on moving with his family to Arizona prior to his passing. Since his retirement, Roman had been writing a political blog and was active online on many Polish forums where he had made many friends. In 2017 he went to Washington DC to urge senators not to ratify S.447 in protest of the demonization of Poland by unscrupulous third party organizations and to prevent the spread of their lies.

He is survived by his wife, Elzbieta; his son, Tadeusz (Nicole Salinas) Tarnawski; two brothers, Leczek (Bozena) Tarnawski of Canada and Wlodek (Mary) Tarnawski of Hanover Park, IL; and his cousin, Lidia Polak of Marseilles. He was preceded in death by his parents.