Victor "Vic" Ostrowidzki

Victor “Vic” Ostrowidzki, 80, a journalist who spent his 45-year career with Hearst newspapers, died April 7 at The Bailey Family Hospice Center Hospice in St. Augustine, Fla. The Ormond Beach, Florida resident passed away after a long illness. Victor was a White House correspondent during the Reagan administration and covered health care issues in the Clinton era. A native of Poland, he covered the historic visit to Poland by Pope John Paul II in June, 1979 and also contributed to Hearst’s coverage of the collapse of Communist governments in Eastern Europe in the 1980s. In 1997, after covering Congress, Presidential campaigns from 1964-1988 and official Presidential trips around the world, Victor retired to Ormond Beach, Fla. He became a professor at Flagler College in St. Augustine, where he taught journalism and politics and was the Director of the Flagler Forum on Government and Public Policy until his death. Victor was born in 1931 in the Polish city of Kutno. He survived the Nazi and Soviet occupations during and after World War II, living long years with relatives after being separated from his family during the invasion. After the war, he escaped to Sweden in 1947 and then immigrated to England in 1948, where he was able to rejoin his late parents Erazm and Czeslawa Ostrowidzki and his brother, Joe. He attended King’s College in London. He and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1950 and eventually settled in Saugerties, NY. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1954 and a master’s degree in 1963, from Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y. In the 1950s, Victor became a United States citizen and served several years in the U.S. Army in Germany. He worked for Hearst’s Times Union newspaper in Albany, N.Y. covering local and New York State government and politics from 1952 until 1979, when he transferred to the Washington, DC bureau. Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo recalled Victor as “a wonderful person, very bright, very devoted to the Times Union.” Victor was loved by his students and colleagues alike at Flagler College. A colleague described him as a “walking history lesson.” He was an inspiration and mentor to his students, children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren. His friends loved his self-effacing sense of humor, humble nature and gentle manner. He loved playing poker and enjoyed a regular weekly game. He was an ardent Siena College basketball fan. Always a hard worker, Victor taught his classes until three weeks before his death. He married his first wife, Rita de Gonzague Ostrowidzki in 1953, who died after a long illness in 1988. Survivors include his kind and loving wife of 19 years, Sharon St. Germain Ostrowidzki of Ormond Beach; three children from his first marriage, Alicia (Ken) Rubin of Stamford, Conn., Eric Ostrowidzki of Vancouver, B.C., and David (Eva) Ostrowidzki of Clifton Park, N.Y.; two stepchildren, Laurie (Neal) Tipton of Flagler Beach, Fla., and David (Barbara) Wolf of Falls Church; a brother, retired U.S. Army Colonel Joe (Jane) Ostrowidzki of El Paso, Texas; 10 grandchildren, and a large extended family in the United States and Poland. Calling hours will be Friday, April 27 from 4-5 p.m. (family) and 5-7 p.m. (public) at the McVeigh Funeral Home, 208 North Allen Street, Albany, NY. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Saturday, April 28 at 9 a.m. at The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 125 Eagle Street, Albany NY. Interment will follow at Memory Gardens Cemetery, 983 Watervliet Shaker Road, Albany, NY.

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Victor "Vic" Ostrowidzki

September 17, 1931 - April 7, 2012