Biographical note
Józef Budzisz was born on 8 February 1909 in Puck in a cashubian family. For centuries, members of the Budzisz family have handled fishing. The Budzisz family has come from Chałupy on the Hel Peninsula. Antoni the father of Józef bought in 1908 a parcel in Puck nerbay the harbour. On the parcel existed a small fishery house and smokehouse in the backyard. Between 1915-1918the old house was torn down and a tenement house.
Józef and his four brothers learned fishing from an early age. The Budzisz family fished together. In the summer they transported tourists by boat to Hel Peninsula and Gdynia. Józef spent his free time on his passion- scale modelling. The outbreak of World War II changed Józef's life - like many inhabitants of Pomerania, he was forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht. After the war, he tried to live in a new reality and started fishing. In 1950 the communist authorities took away his fishing card (permit to pursue the profession of fisherman). He then began working in „Centrala Rybna” as a worker and then as a quality inspector. In the second half of the 1950s, he became the manager of the purchase of fish in Kuźnica. In 1956 the fishing card was returned to him. He worked at the fishing and fishing services enterprie Arka in Gdynia and Szkuner in Władysławowo. He returned to the passion of his youth and made models of fishing boats and dissected fish specimens. In this way, he created his private collection, which he showed his friends. At their persuasion, he decided to organize an exhibition in his own home, which he named Small Fishery Museum. The exact date of creation of the museum is unknown. Its creator determined the time of the museum's creation as 1954-1955. Over time, it turned out that it was the first para-museum facility of this type on the Gdańsk Coast. In 1969 he obtained permission to run a fish fryery - Chëcz Kaszubska. He ran two complementing and promoting activities of cashubian culture – a museum and restaurant to the end of his life. He was honoured with many awards for cultivating fishing traditions and Kashubian culture. He died on 11 July 1992 in Puck.
