Photo Illustration by Mark Rossbach ’21| Mr. Radolinski has been a member of the Brophy faculty for nearly 40 years and has witnessed the building of most of the major buildings on campus.

By Mark Rossbach ’21

The ROUNDUP

Mr. Radolinski has been on campus the longest out of any adult member in the community, starting his career at Brophy back in 1983 when it consisted of Brophy Chapel, Romley, Brophy Hall and Loyola Hall.

Mr. Radolinski grew up in Poland, but later escaped to Austria in the late 1970s to a refugee camp in lieu of Russian presence in his home country. From there, he applied for Canadian and American visas. Although he had not been permitted to enter Canada, Mr. Radolinski was accepted into the U.S. and came to Phoenix.

In Phoenix, an associate of Mr. Radolinksi informed him of a job opening at a local high school. Mr. Radolinski took up the offer, interviewed at Brophy, and was hired to work on the maintenance staff the next day. For his job position, he was in charge of taking care of the school, the work study program, and also driving “Big Red,” the old 1944 school bus.

Outside of his work, Mr. Radolinski extensively enjoys going out on trips to see the world. Some of his favorite places he has been to are Alaska, the Bahamas and Barbados. “I was last Christmas in the Bahamas, Jamaica [and] the Grand Cayman,” Mr. Radolinski said. He also goes back to Europe every few years to visit his sister in Poland, as well as old friends in Poland and Germany.

Due to his extensive career at Brophy, he witnessed the high school years of many of the prominent figures on campus including Mr. Andrew Schmidbauer ’88, Mr. José Mendoza ’88 and Mr. Pete Burr ’07. “I arrived in 1984 as a freshman, and I did work study that summer before I started, and [Mr.] Mark Radolinski was my boss. From 1984 until a few years ago, he still called me ‘freshman,’” Mr. Schmidbauer said.

Mr. Radolinski has also witnessed some major changes made around campus. “[The plaza] used to be a swimming pool. Not a full size, but half the size of our current pool,” Mr. Radolinski said.

Today, he can be seen around campus setting up for the next major Brophy event or fixing one of the daily problems at Brophy. Mr. Burr noted about Mr. Radolinki’s hard work ethic around campus.

“He is among the hardest working human beings on this campus to make sure that every one happens.” In fact, he said that that was his favorite part about his job: “I’m [in] the habit, every day [that] I have a different job; different job, different subjects,” Mr. Burr said.

These might just be the basics, but there is so much more to know about his near-four decades at Brophy that he is very happy to tell anyone if they are to ask.