The Foundation is named after Tadeusz Kościuszko, full name Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko (middle name particularly appropriate for those of us living in Ventura County), who was a military engineer and statesman, fought in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s struggles against Russia and Prussia (1790s), and on the American side in the American Revolutionary War. A close friend of Thomas Jefferson’s, with whom he shared ideals of human rights, Kościuszko wrote a will in 1798 dedicating his American assets to the education and freedom of U.S. slaves.
For more information see the Tadeusz Kościuszko Wikipedia page.