Jan Stopyra

Jan Władysław Stopyra (; 16 December 1934 – 16 August 2023) was a Polish politician, lecturer and economist. From 26 June 1972 to 17 December 1973, Stopyra was the chairperson of the Presidium of the City National Council of Szczecin, Poland which was equivalent of an office of the mayor. Following the changes to the governing system, he served as mayor of Szczecin from 17 December 1973 to 31 March 1984. From 2002 to 2018, he was a councilor in Szczecin, and the chairperson of its municipal council from 2002 to 2006, and from 2010 to 2014.

Biography Jan Stopyra was born on 16 December 1934 in Ivano-Frankivsk, then located in the Second Polish Republic, and now in Ukraine. His parents were Stanisław Stopyra and Maria Stopyra (née Lech), and he has older brother Leszek Storypa. His father was an officer of the Polish Armed Forces, and served during the invasion of Poland in 1939. In 1943, Stanisław Stopyra was arrested by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union, while the family were forced by the Soviet officers to leave Ivano-Frankivsk in 1944. They moved to a village of Ugriniv in the Ukrainian SSR, where they were reunited with Stanisław Stopyra, 16months after his arrest. In 1945, the family moved to the town of Przeworsk, and later to the villages of Grodzisko Dolne and Białośliwie. After the end of the war, they moved to the town Nakło nad Notecią, where Stopyra attended a primary school. His father moved to Szczecin, where he owned a small store. Stopyra graduated from a high school in Bydgoszcz, and begun studying law in Toruń, with aim of becoming a lawyer, however he quit after first semester, and moved to Szczecin in 1950.

Stopyra graduated from the Higher School of Economics in Szczecin, and worked at the university from 1954 to 1959, as a lecturer in its military student program. In 1957, he graduated from the Kraków School of Economics, with a master's degree in economics. In the late 1950s, Stopyra became an assistant director at the State Fruit and Vegetable Enterprise in Szczecin, and in 1959, he was arrested and accused of leading an organised criminal group, being sentenced for four and half years in prison in Szczecin. On 30 December 1959, the military court in Szczecin found him innocent.

After his return to Poland, Stopyra became an attorney-in-fact of the voivode of the Szczecin Voivodeship, to oversee the founding of the Szczecin–Świnoujście Customs Free Zone , later becoming its deputy chairperson, after it was transformed into a public limited company. He retired in 1992. He was reelected to the Szczecin City Council in 2006, on the electoral list of the Left and Democrats party. Stopyra was again reelected in 2010, on the electoral list of the Civic Platform.

He was reelected to the council in 2014, on the electoral list of the Independents of West Pomerania. From 2002 to 2006, and from 2010 to 2014, Stopyra was the chairperson of the council. In 2019, he was appointed as the attorney-in-fact of the mayor in senior citizen maters. He was also a member and a chairperson of the Association of the Friends of Szczecin.

Stopyra died on 16 August 2023 in Szczecin at the age of 88. He was buried at the Central Cemetery in Szczecin.

Personal life Jan Stopyra was married to dentist Krystyna Stopyra , with whom he had a son. Silver Cross of Merit Gold Cross of Merit Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta Medal of the Commission of National Education Pomeranian Griffin Badge of Honour (twice)

Selected published works 1972: "Jak widzę swoje miasto po roku? Odpowiadając na raport", in Kurier Szczeciński, Szczecin, 1972, no. 282, pp. 7, 10. 1975: "'Być szczecinianinem'. Była to gospodarska rozmowa...", in Kurier Szczeciński, Szczecin, 1975, no. 216, p. 5. 1975: "Nic co szczecińskie nie jest wam obce", in Trzydziestolecie Kuriera Szczecińskiego, Szczecin, pp. 4–6. 1985: "Refleksje po 12 latach", in Kronika Miasta Szczecina 1983, pp. 21–31. 2007: "Henryk Boehlke (1920-2006)", in Kronika Szczecina 2006, pp. 161-162. 2012: "Narodziny Kroniki Szczecina", in Kronika Szczecina 2011, pp. 5-7.