Mark Kulikowski (1954 - 2018) grew up in the Triple Cities region and was an alumnus of the State University of New York at Binghamton, receiving his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in history in 1976, 1977, and 1982. Kulikowski taught at Empire State College and SUNY Binghamton before taking a teaching position at the State University of New York at Oswego, where he rose to the rank of associate professor. His research and teaching specialty was in modern Russian and U.S. diplomatic history.

Kulikowski was the author of numerous articles pertaining to Russian and East European society, and his book Bibliography of Slavic Mythology was published in 1989. He was a member of the editorial board of Polish American Studies, as well as a contributing editor of the American Bibliography of Slavic & East European Studies. In 2005 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Polish American Historical Association.

The Kulikowski collection was donated to Special Collections between 2007 and Mark Kulikowski's death in 2018. An endowment established by the Kulikowski family enables the Libraries to acquire additional materials related to local history: these items can be found by searching the online catalog or ArchivesSpace for "Mark Kulikowski Collection Endowment."