R.I.P. 2003

Mroczek, who helped start Project Air Care and spent her career helping the poor with energy issues, died Sunday of a heart attack at her West Side home. She was 52. “Many people don’t accomplish in a lifetime what she was able to,’ said Marie Collart, president of the [Central Ohio Breathing Association]. “She was always on the cutting edge, always had incredible insight into how government could go to work to help citizens of our community that were less-privileged.”
— Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 2, 2003

Vicky Mroczek sings to an audience of 1,200 at a Columbus conference, April 27-28, 1979, sponsored by her activist organization and Ohio chapters of national unions. (Steve Cagan photo).

She was the Chief of the Office of Community Services at the Ohio Department of Development, where she managed the Home Energy Assistance Program and the Community Services Block Grant through Ohio’s 52 local community action agencies. Last winter, for example, Vicky’s office helped 132,201 of Ohio’s poorest families whose utilities had disconnected them or were threatening to do so. She was a quiet and effective leader, and a good friend.

She devoted her career to improving the conditions of poverty for Ohio’s low-income. … She completed her doctorate in Political Science at The Ohio State University. She is the beloved daughter of the late Michael Mroczek and Phyllis Mroczek of Pompano, Fla. Loving husband, George of 24 years.
— Columbus Dispatch

Excerpts from tributes published online by OhioCitizen.org.