Picture published Wilkes-Barre Record Dec. 19, 1944
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Ashley Borough burgess — today’s district magisterial judges — Walter Grey Gryskewicz was built like a linebacker.
Standing at 6 feet, 2 inches tall and 225 pounds, the 28-year-old had already served as a state representative, Ashley councilman and the borough’s judge when he was drafted into the U.S. Army midway through World War II.
News of his death in battle was announced on the first page of the Wilkes-Barre Record on Dec. 19, 1944.
“Pvt. Walter Grey Gryskewicz, burgess of Ashley for the past six years and former representative from the 2nd Legislative District, was killed in action in Germany on Dec. 5, according to word received by his wife, Mrs. Della Gryskewicz,” the Record reported.
Gryskewicz, a private, was assigned to the U.S. Army’s 1340th Engineer Combat Battalion when he was killed during the Battle of the Bulge.
Gryskewicz spent his entire life in Ashley, where he was born Dec. 17, 1911. While living at 91 Carey St. in Carey’s Patch, Gryskewicz married another Ashley native, Della Vichulis, in 1934. They had three children early in their marriage.
Gryskewicz worked as a police officer for the Jersey Central Railroad with duties to patrol the Ashley planes in the mid-1930s at the time. He also served on Ashley council.
While serving on Ashley’s council, Gryskewicz was elected as the borough’s burgess in 1937 and continued to hold the title of burgess as he campaigned for state representative in the 2nd Legislative District in 1940.
“Probably the biggest upset of the legislative fights in yesterday’s primary was the victory of Walter Gryskewicz, burgess of Ashley for the Democratic nomination,” the Record reported April 24, 1940.
Gryskewicz unseated the incumbent, state Rep. John C. Bohn, by 520 votes, in the 1940 primary election.
In the 1940 General Election, Gryskewicz defeated Republican candidate Peter Wolfe of Hanover Township to win the state representative seat.
However, Gryskewicz only served one two-year term as he was defeated for reelection in the 1942 election.
With World War II raging, Gryskewicz was one of 47 men from the Wyoming Valley drafted in August 1943, being assigned to the U.S. Army.
“Burgess Walter G. Gryskewicz, 91 Carey St., aged 34 and married and the father of three children, is among the local Ashley group of young men who passed the physical examinations and will leave for New Cumberland with the contingent for training on Oct. 12,” reported the Evening News on Set. 24, 1943.
Two Luzerne County judges appointed Gryskewicz’s wife, Della, to fill the burgess seat in Ashley on Dec. 14, 1944.
When Della Gryskewicz was appointed, her husband had been killed during the Battle of the Bulge. She was notified of her husband’s death by a telegram from the U.S. War Department on Dec. 18, 1944.
Gryskewicz was buried in the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium.
Della Gryskewicz died in a Pittsburgh hospital on Sept. 4, 2011. She was 89 and buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Hanover Township.