continued to serve in fundraising for the Polish Relief Commission. Helenka helped to found the U.S. Fund for UNICEF in 1947, and served as the organization’s president from 1953 until her retirement in 1978. Her service as president of the U.S. Committee for UNICEF was unpaid. The Executive Director of UNICEF, James P. Grant, wrote in 1994:For 26 years, from 1953 through 1978, she served as volunteer president of the U.S. Committee. While she headed the Committee more than $113 million was turned over to UNICEF in the name of the American people ... Honors 1966: Awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Wheaton College (Massachusetts). 1975: Awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Smith College. 2007: UNICEF inaugurated an annual Helenka Pantaleoni Award for humanitarian service. Personal information Helenka's uncle Tymoteusz (aka Timothee) was the first conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Her brother Tadeusz Adamowski played for Poland's National Hockey Team in the 1928 Olympics. Her stepson, Hewitt Pantaleoni, was an American professor and ethnomusicologist. Her son Anthony (father of actress Téa Leoni) is Chair of the Board of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, and was of counsel to Fulbright & Jaworski (now (2020) Norton Rose Fulbright), the successor of the New York City law firm that his father founded in 1935. Her granddaughter Téa has served as a Goodwill ambassador for UNICEF since 2001 and is a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Filmography Sources "Reminiscences of Helenka Pantaleoni," Columbia University Library, 1977. Item #CF/RAD/USAA/DB01/196-013. Interview by Richard Polsky, April 12, 1977. Helenka Adamowska Pantaleoni, In Her Own Words, New York: U.S. Committee for UNICEF, 1994. Jan Pirkey, A Gift from the Heart: Profile of Helenka Adamowska Pantaleoni, American Volunteer and Founding Spirit of UNICEF, Franktown, Colorado: JP Enterprises, 1986; . Notes External links Helenka and Guido Pantaleoni Foundation 1900 births 1987 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Boston American stage actresses American silent film actresses American people of Polish descent American humanitarians Women humanitarians People from Brookline, Massachusetts Place of death missing UNICEF people American officials of the United Nations Winsor School alumni Members of the Junior League