Jerzy Ciesielski was a Polish civil engineer and university professor born in Kraków in 1929. A dedicated member of the Focolare Movement, he maintained a long-standing friendship with Karol Wojtyła, who later became Pope John Paul II. Ciesielski taught at the Tadeusz Kościuszko University of Technology and later served as a visiting lecturer in Sudan. His life was cut short in 1970 during a shipwreck on the Nile River, a tragic accident that also claimed the lives of his two young children.