Leopold E. Wierzbicki

Dr. Leopold Edmund Wierzbicki, 94, of Lemoore, California, passed away on Sunday, February 1, 2026.  Born on Sunday, November 15, 1931, in Olkowicze, Poland.

Leopold was born to Heronim and Urszula (née Horodecka) Wierzbicki in a village in what is now Belarus (before the borders of Poland were moved after WWII).  When his parents were born in the 1890’s, Olkowicze was officially part of the Russian Empire.  Leopold’s parents were proprietors of the bakery in the village. Leopold and his four brothers – Piotr, Albin, Czesław, and Józef – were proud to work in the bakery – until war in Europe broke out.  The area of their village witnessed massive troop movements as the Nazi military and the Russian Red Army moved through the theater of war.  One cold Christmas Eve night, Leopold’s father was taken by the Russian army to exile in Siberia – never to be seen again.  After the war, his mother Urszula and her five sons were placed in a wooden railcar and moved hundreds of miles west to a new Poland.

Academically gifted, Leopold went to study at Lodz Polytechnic University – the first and only one in his family to do so.  After a distinguished yet oftentimes tumultuous career (which included near expulsion due to protesting the Communist-led government), Leopold was allowed to emigrate to the United States of America in 1961.  Before emigrating, Leopold had met the love of his life Stanislawa (Stasia) Chwilowna, working together in a wine and fruit factory.

In Vermont, he was united with the brothers and sisters of his father -- all of whom had left Poland prior to or after World War I.  Leopold attended St. Michael’s College in Vermont for one year to learn English. 

Leopold was then accepted to study food science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  In 1965, his fiancée Stasia was able to obtain after much effort – with the help of friends, professors, and sympathetic government officials – the papers needed to emigrate to America.  Reunited in Boston, Leopold and Stasia married almost immediately in a Polish church on August 28, 1965.

Leopold and Stasia welcomed their first child Beata Marianna in 1967.  Leopold continued his academic career at Cornell University, earning his Doctorate in Microbiology and Food Science in December 1971.  And in the same week they welcomed the birth of their first son Edmund Adam.  Two years later, now living in Stamford, Connecticut, Leopold and Stasia celebrated the birth of daughter Halina Slawa.

In the first half of his career – living in New York, Connecticut, Minnesota, and Ohio – Leopold worked throughout the United States for industry giants in the field of dairy science and fuel ethanol.  Embarking on his own consulting company in 1980, Leopold founded Wierzbicki & Associates to continue the progress he made in the whey ethanol industry.

It was as a consultant that Leopold was invited to California to work on a project in Hanford, California.  After seeing the expansiveness of the dairy industry in California, he immediately knew that he would move to California.  In 1990, he incorporated a second company, California Bio-Productex to serve and accommodate the needs of the huge dairy plants being built in California.  In 2000, while enjoying success in the whey business, Leopold purchased a cheese plant of his own.  The new company Crown Natural Foods was a dream come true for this scientist and entrepreneur.  Leopold never retired and had the passion and strength to work until the very end.

Leopold was pre-deceased by his four brothers: Piotr (Peter), Albin, Czesław, and Józef (Joseph).

Leopold was pre-deceased by his eldest daughter Beata Marianna Gray.

He is survived by his wife Stasia Wierzbicki, his son Edmund Wierzbicki, his daughter Halina Walsh, his granddaughter Juliana Walsh, his son-in-law Randy Gray, his son-in-law Scott Walsh, and his step-grandchildren Trent and Amber, and their children Elliot, Holden, and Lincoln.  He is also survived by his dear cousin Kamelia Wierzbicki in Vermont, born in 1931 one month after Leopold.

A visitation will be held on Monday, February 16, at 5:00 pm, at Whitehurst-McNamara Funeral Home, 100 West Bush Steet, Hanford, CA, with a Rosary Prayer at 6:00 pm.  A Funeral Mass will be held on Tuesday, February 17, at 11:00 am, at St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church, 870 North Lemoore Avenue, Lemoore, CA, with a burial to follow at Grangeville Cemetery, 10428 14th Avenue, Armona, CA.  In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Leopold’s honor to the Adam Mickiewicz Polish Saturday School in Minneapolis – https://pssminneapolis.com/  –  a school that Leopold helped found.

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