With great sadness, we announce the passing of our father, Grzegorz (Greg) Nowak, at the age of 78. Our father left us peacefully on the morning of June 7th, 2025 at Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga. He was predeceased by our mother, Halina Nowak, who left us in May 2021.

Grzegorz was born in Slupsk, Poland on November 17, 1946 and spent most of his childhood in Pruszyn, Poland with his parents (Kazimierz and Aniela) and siblings (Marian, Elzbieta, Marysia and Piotr).
Grzegorz and Halina were married in 1971 and had three sons: Maciej (1972), Jakub (1974) and Thomas (1984).

The family left Poland for Austria in September of 1981 just prior to the declaration of Martial Law in Poland. The family temporarily settled in Gostling, Austria while Grzegorz and Halina were deciding where to start a new life. Having successfully been accepted to Switzerland, Australia, South Africa and Canada, Grzegorz and Halina decided to move the family to Toronto, Canada on May 12, 1982 where Greg’s older brother, Marian Nowak, had settled several years earlier.

Several years after settling in Canada and working numerous jobs, Grzegorz joined DeHavilland (now Bombardier) Canada in 1984. He took great pride in his work on the Dash-8 and retired from Bombardier in 2008.

Much of his time during retirement was spent pursuing his passions which involved travel, stamp and coin collecting, and gardening.

Grzegorz proudest life accomplishment was making the bold move to resettle his family in Canada. He did this at great personal sacrifice in order to provide his children with opportunities that did not exist in Poland at the time. During the latter stages of his life he was tremendously proud of the lives that we were able to build.

Thank you tata for everything that you’ve done for us and the sacrifices you made to give our family a better life. You are dearly missed.