n this short life I am learning about some of the people I havemade radio friendships with! The World Wide Web makes alot of it possible. One of these fascinating people is Steve(N2DAN) Nurkiewicz ex WA2YBR of Long Island and Florida.
Steve is a silent key now but his memory lives on in many ways.

IFirst, I enjoyed our weekly contacts on CW, Steve was good atconversation and I could tell right away he was nautical! Steve’s
QSL card featured his sailing vessel. He was very active in thatarea of life. Being a member of the Wireless Pioneer Fraternity,
we were instant brothers! Steve would take the time for a chatafter the weekly net, when not many others would. I enjoyedgetting to know a person.
In later years I learned Steve was a machinist and hand crafted some marvelous key paddles. I filed
all of that back in my memory bank. Little did I know Steve would become a cult member andadored by the cw fellows of our radio fraternity for his unique skills.
Steve S. Nurkiewicz (N2DAN) age 70 expires of cancer 21 May 1997 in Florida. A Morse code key
crafter of Port Charlotte, Florida - Nurkiewicz was known by CW operators for his hand-crafted
Mercury paddles, which featured a round, all-chrome design. His wife survives - 1997 W3CWThe following from Parade Magazine 22 March 1981 - “How a son found his parents after 40years.” If prizes were awarded for family reunions, Stefan Nurkiewicz of Freeport, N.Y. would
surely win a blue ribbon. His reunion with his parents was 40 years in the making and took theunlikely combination of Polish-American friendship, luck and a father’s singular determination tosee his son again.
The dramatic meeting between Nurkiewicz, a 54 year old machinist and his 80 year old father
marked the end of a tragic separation that began in war-torn Poland of 1939. At first glance, theruddy-faced bespectacled Nurkiewicz is the average American. He married the girl next door, has
two handsome children, an attractive waterfront home and a successful precision machine ship heand his wife built together “by working until 2 or 3 in the morning.”
But Steve is no ordinary American. He was born near the Polish border with the Soviet Union in1926. Thirteen years later, his father Zdzislaw, a dashing calvary commander, would lead his men– armed only with sabers and lances – into the battle against invading Nazi troops. Stefan parted withhis heroic father on that day, 2 Sept 1939. Just two weeks later, Russian soldiers, crossed the border
10 miles away to claim a huge expanse of eastern Poland. Thousands of frightened Poles, including
Mrs. Nurkiewicz and her children, were rounded up and herded into railroad cars for a torturousthree week trip to a hellish Siberian exile.
Within the next two years, two of Stefan’s younger brothers died of malnutrition and illness. Thena sympathetic doctor, pitying the family’s misery, allowed him to join an army of Polish exiles
fighting for the Allies. He was sent to Tehran for training, then fought in Allied campaigns in theMiddle East, North Africa and Monte Cassio, Italy, where he was wounded. Continued

After the war, not knowing if his parents were still alive and unable to return to his Soviet occupied
homeland, Stefan emigrated to Brooklyn.
The story might have ended there if it hadn’t been for a wartime photograph (taken for a Polishmagazine called Parade) of the teenaged soldier Stefan and a 47 year old veteran who had become
his unofficial guardian. It was published in Polish newspapers and later in a book in which therepatriated Zdzislaw Nurkiewicz and his wife Jazefa excitedly recognized their son and began thelong search to locate him.
The elderly calvary soldier had miraculously survived the German destruction of the Polish military.
But he had become an enemy of the Soviet controlled government for having dared to fight theinvading Russians. He evaded the authorities for a while, but eventually the secret police caught up
with him. He was tried as a “bandit” and sentenced to death. But the sentence was commuted to 15years in prison. Meanwhile, Stefan’s mother scrubbed floors in Poland to feed herself.
In Brooklyn, Stefan was raising a family and establishing his successful business. “I really thought
they were all dead,” he recalls. “I gave up hope and gradually it helped me to forget. The Germans
destroyed the Polish Army and getting my mother out of the Soviet Union would have been likesqueezing water from a stone.”
Then a chance encounter in New York City in 1977 set off a bizarre chain of events. Stefan had readthat a touring Polish orchestra was in town and being a musician himself (he plays bass) he decided
to drop by for a drink with his countrymen. I then gave them my business card and told them to giveme a call if they were ever in NYC.
Steve’s acquaintances did better than that. Months later, when the troupe returned to Poland, thecard was passed along to Kazik Nurkiewicz, a violinist friend of the symphony musicians who wasalso the keeper of the Nurkiewicz family tree and who happened to be Stefan’s cousin. A letter wassent immediately to the American’s business address. “I’m writing in the name of your father. If
you’re the man we are seeking, this would make your father extremely happy.” But problems rearedup again, the machinist had moved, his home and business. The undelivered letter was returned toPoland.
Undaunted, the elder Nurkiewicz, now released from prison and full of hope for the first time in 15years, wrote to the same address, that note, too, was returned. But the old stubborn calvarycommander wasn’t going to give up. His next letter was given by the postman to a former businessassociate of Steve’s, who offered to deliver it by hand. So on 6 December 1979 a trembling Steve
Nurkiewicz opened the following letter and read the neat Polish script. “Dear Sir, I’m seeking one
named Stefan Nurkiewicz, born in 1926, if you are the person I’m seeking, please answer..I would
like to close my eyes in peace.”
Shouting to his wife Terry, Steve ran to phone the man at the return address. But 40 years ofseparation wasn’t going to be breached so easily. The only phone in Adzislaw “Nurkiewicz’s town
was the post office and it took a week to set up the call. Continued

The night before, neither Steve nor Terry could sleep. At precisely 6 a.m. the phone rang,“Stefan?”..”Father?”.. How are you?
There was still a trace of doubt in Steve’s mind. Quickly he thought of a reassuring question.
“Father, what was the name of your horse?” Ogien (fire), came the immediate reply. – Then an oldwoman’s voice came on the crackling transatlantic line. “My knees buckled and I almost feel to thefloor,” says Steve. I never expected my mother to be alive too! But he recovered long enough toshout, “Mother!” Save the Christmas tree – we’re coming to Poland!
Two weeks later, after some visa troubles had been cleared up by friendly Polish Embassy officials
in Washington, a joyous Nurkiewicz family flew to Krakow. Finally at the airport, says Steve, “Iwalked down the long path and saw a stout gray haired ham with a cane. I had mixed emotions. I
didn’t know this man. But I ran to him and said, “At last, Dad!” We all cried.
The Nurkiewicz’s two week stay in Poland produced other surprises, Stefan had a 30 year oldbrother, born after the war, he’d never heard of and his older brother, Zdislaw, was alive and wellin Russia. The 14 days and nights were filled with endless rounds of talking and Polish vodka.
Last June, Stefan brought his parents to America for a 10 week visit. “The first thing my father
wanted to see was the Statue of Liberty,” recalls Nurkiewicz, with a trace of pride in his voice. Twoweeks after his return to Poland last September the elder Zdislaw Nurkiewicz expired, finallyknowing what became of the 13 year old boy he left behind when he went to war. End – For thoseof you that missed it earlier, Steve (N2DAN) was the man who made my set of Mercury paddles aswell as those for many others of you. --John Paul/AB4PP

Mercury, N2DAN’s Pride and Joy!
ContinuedIn our conversations over the air, N2DAN never mentioned his pride and joy and I was not sure what
he did for a living. Our chats were always neutral ground and we enjoyed each others skill in theMorse code. In later years I learned Steve expired & knew nothing of his heritage. W8SU
N3HQB - Several years ago, I made the pilgrimage to Steve’s shack in Port Charlotte for an eyeballand now own S/N 0152. During his retirement, Steve kept improving the design, experimenting withdifferent threads, paddle materials, cork base ring and applied all of this experience from a life’swork as a machinist and a top cw opr. The result is a genuine cw tool. Keeping up with the cw
keyboards was impossible with other paddles, but a pleasure with the N2DAN Mercury. This wasa beautiful, heavy chrome plating, smooth operation, precisely adjustable, right height off theoperating table. Base is so heavy it rides my center console for cw mobile. God is probably usingone. Bless you, Steve. Aug 2002
KI6YN - I bought my Mercury in 1991, serial number 126. It was everything Steve claimed it was.
It is solid and responsive. I’ve read reviews about copies that claim the original had temperatureproblems, no way have I experienced that. My paddle has remained precie without readjustment forover 10 years of heavy use. It is a thing of beauty and a fitting memorial to a great craftsman. If one
becomes available, buy it, you will have endless hours of pleasure using it.
K8XF - After reading K4TWJ’s book in 1991, I decided to get something better than the Bencher
that I was using for years. After returning home from the high seas, I called Steve 2DAN and aftera landline QSO decided to purchase a key. It was well worth the wait and expense. Very smoothsending, heavy chromed round base, top notch machining magnetic tension adjustment. What asports car of a Paddle...Since N2DAN expired I have noticed many pretender to the Paddle Palace.
This shows that his creation is a popular item to imitate. Glad to have an original item. I wonder ifthe others can hold a candle to the Masters creation? Mike K8XF 2001
AI2Q - “Dan” was a neighbor of mine for quite a few years when living in Freeport Long Island. He
only worked CW & we used to have some great QSO’s cross town occasionally. I’ll always
remember him because he used to compliment me on my bug fist, saying he would never make mea Mercury paddle because I was preserving the art of correctly using a bug! After I visited his oldworld machine shop at his house, I asked him why he didn’t farm out some of the work so that hewould be able to make more Merc’s available to the fraternity. He told me he did just that and wasdismally disappointed. He said the workmanship and quality assurance on certain parts he contracted
for was abysmal. For that reason, he elected to hand craft all mercury paddles – for ever more! I
thought you would like to know about this conversation I had with the late – and great – Steve N
back in the late 1980s. I’ll miss him, his FB fist and his great insight about the musical “ring” ofcertain call signs. His QSL card is on my wall. AI2Q Alex Kennebunk, ME Apr 1998.
In your writers research, others have come out with great workmanship but not to equal the precisionof N2DAN. Those competitors are “The K8FF-- NORCAL Paddle” “The Hensley Paddle” “TheMarch Paddle” & believe it or not Bencher came out with the Mercury, supposedly bought thecopyrights from N2DAN’s estate. I am looking in that now in hope that one might be available.
Authors note; After completion of this article, I ordered the Bencher Mercury Paddle from MilestoneTechnologies - Colorado, which is in stock. Thanks to N2DAN, I finally have one. 16 Nov 05