Obituary: Barbara Rucinska, Computer Engineering Lecturer, Dies of Cancer
March 26, 2008
Dr. Barbara Rucinska, 59, a senior lecturer of computer engineering, testing
and testability, and security engineering at UNH, died Thursday, March 20,
at her Strafford home after a long battle with cancer. She was the wife of
Andrzej Rucinski, a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department.
A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday in the chapel of the R.M.
Edgerly & Son Funeral Home, 86 South Main St., Rochester.
Burial will be in Poland at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the UNH Foundation, Elliott Alumni
Center, with a note attached that reads “In memory of Barbara Rucinska
to be given to the UNH ECE department.”
Born June 3, 1948, in Gdansk, Poland, Rucinska lived in the United States
for the past 25 years after moving from Gdynia with her husband.
A graduate of the Gdansk University of Technology, she earned her doctorate
in computer engineering in the United States.
A profile of Rucinska, written a few years ago by John Pokoski of the electrical
and computer engineering department, follows:
Students and faculty around the ECE department recognize Barbara Rucinska
as a petite blonde lady with a slight European accent who teaches a variety
of courses, supervises student projects, and conducts research. Since she is
quiet and unassuming, most know little more about her. As you will see, a wide
variety of experiences, abilities, and interests can be wrapped in a small
package.
Rucinska is originally from Gdansk, a historic Polish city located at the
mouth of the Vistula River, on the Baltic Sea. Its importance resulted in centuries
of strife between Prussia and Poland, culminating in Germany's invasion (and
WWII) in 1939.
You may recognize Gdansk as the location of the shipyard where the Solidarity
labor movement opposed the communist government, eventually leading to the
downfall of communism in Europe. In fact the house where Rucinska was raised,
and her parents still live, is a half-mile from the home of Lech Walesa, former
Solidarity leader, president of Poland, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
As a child, Rucinska studied music (piano and voice), and graduated as the
top student in the history of one of the most prestigious high schools in Poland.
She was interested in many topics, ranging from mathematics (her parents are
both mathematicians) to economics, international trade and marketing, to foreign
languages (she is fluent in English and Polish, and can converse in Russian,
Ukrainian, Slovak, and German), to literature (she has had several poems published).
However, she finally decided upon a career in electrical engineering since
she regarded it as the most challenging discipline.
Thus, Rucinska began studies at the Technical University of Gdansk, eventually
culminating in a Master of Science in electrical engineering. Later at the
university, she served as a research scientist and as a senior lecturer. She
conducted research, both theoretical and for Polish industry, in a variety
of areas, including computer simulation, diagnostic systems, fault tolerance,
real-time computing, programming languages, system theory, and computer-aided
design. She taught graduate and undergraduate courses in computer architecture,
data structures, computer programming, and numerical methods.
She also served as research advisor for undergraduate and graduate students,
and served as supervisor of their theses. During this period, she met Professor
Robert Newcomb of the University of Maryland while he was on the faculty of
electronics at the University of Gdansk. (Newcomb is an internationally acclaimed
scholar and IEEE Fellow with many honors and accomplishments, including authorship
of 350 papers and five books.) They began a research collaboration in the semi-state
theory of micro-electronic circuits in 1978, and he invited her to pursue a
Ph.D. in applied math at U of M.
However, during this same period, she was very active in the (then) illegal
Solidarity movement, distributing clandestine literature, participating in
university and street demonstrations, and during the martial law period, hiding
politically incorrect books to preserve them from shredding by the communist
government. Thus, when she attempted to accept Newcomb's invitation, the government
did not make the transition easy for her. She underwent a traumatic two years
of tapped phones, curfews, opened correspondence, etc. However, she finally
made it to Maryland, and credits Newcomb for changing her life.
From 1982 to 1984, Rucinska taught calculus and elementary mathematics courses,
took courses, and continued her research collaboration with Newcomb, resulting
in many scholarly publications. At the same time, she began making inquiries
at American universities for a position for her husband Andrzej Rucinski who
was currently teaching electrical engineering back in Gdansk. (Incidentally,
with Polish names, a masculine ending of "ski" is paralleled with
the feminine ending of "ska". So it is not a typo- Andrzej Rucinski
and Barbara Rucinska) Eventually, Rucinski was hired for a temporary faculty
position with the ECE Department at UNH. He soon secured a permanent position
here, and Rucinska was able to be reunited with her husband in Durham. Unfortunately,
this meant forsaking her graduate work at Maryland. She switched to our Ph.D.
program, and under the guidance of Newcomb and several UNH faculty, completed
her degree.
For the past 10 years, she has held various positions in the ECE department,
including instructor, adjunct assistant professor, and research scientist.
She has taught various courses in circuits, logic design, computer organization,
and VLSI. She has conducted research and published papers in several areas,
including collaborative engineering, failure modeling, and distributed systems.
In addition Rucinska was the organizer and chair of the 1995 Atlantic Test
Workshop and the 1996 Advanced Technology Workshop.
Rucinska lives with her husband in a secluded country area in Strafford in
a beautiful log cabin, which they constructed and furnished. They enjoy feeding
the many birds, squirrels and other small animals. However, last year when
Rucinski was out of town, Rucinska and her visiting parents were a bit nonplussed
by a bear investigating the bird feeders on the front porch. Rucinska continues
to enjoy music and dancing. (I've seen her and Andrzej perform some pretty
spiffy polkas and mazurkas.) She reads history, science, religion, and biographies.
Her politics are conservative. She was highly unimpressed by the socialistic
government of her youth, and the current atmosphere of "political correctness" in
the USA brings back memories of restricted speech in the old country.
Rucinska is a good cook (my mouth waters at the thought of her mushroom soup)
and gardener. She enjoys traveling, regularly visiting her relatives in Europe.
In addition to her parents in Gdansk, she has two sisters, both engineers.
One lives in Gdansk. The other lives in Paris with her French husband, whom
she met while stranded in France when martial law was imposed in Poland. Finally,
Rucinska is a hiker and tennis player.
As suggested earlier, many things can be wrapped in a small package.
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