Professor Ida Kurcz passed away on January 25, 2024. Polish academia has lost an exceptional scholar who was an unquestioned authority around the world. It was she who introduced psycholinguistics into the bloodstream of Polish psychology and set the tone for its development. She was hailed as the First Lady of psycholinguistics in Poland for a reason. The present text examines her biography together with her research, teaching and organizational achievements.

The paper presents the usefulness of the common sense psychology, as well as of the knowledge acquired in various traditions of academic psychology in historical interpretations.

Professor Zdzislaw Chlewinski was the creator and head of the Department of Experimental Psychology at the Catholic University of Lublin. His main interests were focused on decision-making and risk-taking, and in general – on human cognition, including errors in thinking. As a scholar, researcher and educator, he was concerned with methodological precision and the use of computational methods in psychological research. As a man of science and a Catholic priest, he was distinguished by his open-mindedness, cognitive curiosity, tolerance and social commitment. The article presents the Professor's scientific profile and research, publication and organizational achievements.