Mila Rechcigl’s lifetime legacy

Miloslav ‘Míla’ Rechcígl, Jr., is a versatile person with many talents — a man of science and organization professionally, and a Renaissance man by the breadth of his knowledge and scholarly interests. He has given two donations to the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, drawn from the private library and archival collection in Rockville, Maryland, where he and his late wife Eva resided for most of their life, prior to moving to Florida. Both donations included large collections of new copies of the books he has authored, offered for sale by the Museum. This is significant considering that most of his books are out of print and otherwise available only from resellers at hefty prices, and not necessarily new.

The donations became the basis of the unique Research Room at the NCSML, bearing Mila’s and Eva’s names, dedicated in their honor on 21 September 2024 as their lifetime legacy.

By training, Mila is a notable biochemist and science administrator, employed by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the US Department of State, and the US Agency for International Development, where he managed research for some twenty-seven years. After retiring in 1996 he became a full-fledged non-fiction writer, and reached the venerable age of ninety-five on 30 July 2025 while still fully engrossed in full-time work — a visionary and an activist, spending all his energy and stamina writing scholarly books, sometimes as many as two a year, in his capacity as SVU Scholar-in-Residence.

Above all, he has always maintained his role as an activist on behalf of Czechoslovakia and its successor states, and on Czech-American relations. As the past Czech Ambassador to the USA, H.E. Dr. Hynek Kmoníček, wrote in his foreword to one of Mila’s books: “It was my personal pleasure to award him on his 90th birthday the highest diplomatic award which the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic could bestow upon him, the Medal of Merit in Diplomacy. Rechcigl never entered foreign service. However, through his life and Presidency of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, as well as through his books and interactions with Americans, he did as much for the diplomacy of the Czech state as career ambassadors have, if not more.”

For a number of years Mila also held the position of SVU Archivist. In this capacity he organized the Society’s fairly complete archival collection, which he then deposited in several prestigious repositories: the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, the University of Nebraska, Palacký University in Olomouc, and most recently the National Archives in Prague, the Náprstek Museum in Prague, and the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids.

Since 1953 Mila was married to his devoted wife Eva, a strong supporter of her husband in all his endeavors, who passed away on 24 January 2024. They are the parents of two children, Jack E. Rechcigl and Karen Rechcigl Kollecas; of five grandchildren, Greg, Kevin and Lindsey Rechcigl and Kristin and Paul Kollecas; and of four great-grandchildren, James, Evelyn and Lily Rechcigl and Bennett Wells. As he has always acknowledged, Mila could not have achieved as much as he did without the love and full support of his family.

In my early youth I was basically very shy, although not an introvert, by any means. I liked the company of others and enjoyed engaging in one to one discussions where I was quite effective.

I always had lots of friends when I grew up but did not aspire to any leadership role. In fact, having been brought up in a well-to-do family, I was a bit envious of my poorer friends and wanted to be like them, so that I would “fit in”. As a youngster I enjoyed reading, which almost bordered on obsession, which made me different from most of my childhood friends. This trait remained with me.

I showed the first signs of independence when I decided to get out of the communist Czechoslovakia and matured considerably after being caught at the border and put in jail.

As a teenager I was essentially carefree and did not bother much with thoughts of what I would be when I grew up. This was actually a given since my first day on this planet, based on the long family tradition, it was expected that I would continue in the line of my ancestors, and, as the first-born son, I would inherit the family mill. Only after crossing the border to Western Germany and entering the refugee camp, it suddenly dawned on me that I will need to learn some skills in order to take care of myself.

After coming to the US, and, especially following my enrollment at Cornell University, I was practically on my own. Although initially my father helped me as much as he could, within his modest means, beginning with my sophomore year, I essentially earned my own living and made my own decisions.

I showed organizational ability ever since I became secretary of the Masaryk Club in New York City in the early fifties. As for my shyness in public, I began to overcome it after taking a public speaking course in college and gradually gained confidence when I began giving seminars in my classes and reported on my research findings at scientific meetings. In the process I acquired a somewhat combative attitude and it gave me pleasure when I could show that the other researchers were wrong. I did not intend to be mean, or show disrespect to others, it was simply a question of intellectual combativeness and a bit of upmanship. As I matured I realized that such cocky behavior could be counterproductive, leading to loss of friendship, so I began to control this trait, in an effort to avoid unnecessary confrontations.

Although my spoken English was nothing to brag about in my first years in the US, I nevertheless was able to read from a prepared text. My writing ability was improving steadily so that by the time I received my Doctorate, I had no difficulty whatsoever, in getting my papers published in professional journals. Based on my publication record, I must have been one of the most productive graduate students.

I have always treasured my independence and intensely disliked being dependent on others. I liked to do my own thinking and disliked conformity which has been reflected in my attitude toward politics. Having grown up in the home of a politician, I gradually developed an intuitive dislike for politics and for the life politicians lead. I, most certainly, did not want to live and end up like my father. This had a profound influence on my future life. I never belonged to any political party and fiercely defended my independence. I voted for candidates on the basis of their traits and actions rather than on the party to which they belonged.

Fiscally, I have tended to be conservative which some people interpreted as a Republican. Although I had a tendency to vote more frequently for Republicans than for Democrats, I did not consider myself a Republican. Although being fiscally conservative, I have always been rather progressive in my social orientation and attitude. I have favored what they call a progressive Republicanism, as represented by people like Nelson Rockefeller [1] or John McCain [2].

Although I grew up in a Catholic family, I did not feel comfortable in the Church. Having spent my formative years in a highly intellectual family and adherents of the teachings of Master Jan Hus [3], while attending Gymnasium, I had the opportunity to read world literature and get a full understanding of Czech history in the context of world events. I learned about the atrocities that had been committed in the name of religion which greatly impacted on my faith and overall attitude toward organized Church. As a trained scientist I developed a rather skeptical mind and question dogmas of any kind. Although I feel that the Churches can play an important role, especially in molding human and family values, and in affecting social justice, and although I basically consider myself a believer in superior entity, guarding the universe, I could not with clear conscience become a faithful sheep in an organized church setting.

I am clearly not a blind follower. To be sure, as long as I was employed, I worked as hard as I could and always maintained loyalty to my superiors and carried out my responsibilities to perfection. On a few occasions when I felt that a given action was contrary to my basic values and common sense, I have not been afraid to raise my voice to warn my superiors of the consequences, even at a cost that it might put me in their disfavor.

With maturity, I learned to avoid unnecessary confrontations. I also learned that one cannot remain silent, when others behave irresponsibly and if their actions don’t make sense. I always spoke my mind when the situation called for! I have not been afraid to fight for what I believed and considered it my duty to do so, if the conditions required. Complacency and fear have never been among my traits.

By nature, I consider myself an idealist and optimist, although in my actions I have always been realistic. I am pleased to say that whatever I undertook most everything led to a successful outcome and concrete product. As a rule, I did not get involved in anything which was doomed to failure. It seems that I have always done best as an underdog and when I faced an uphill battle in the effort to reach the goal that I considered important.

I have never suffered from any complexes and, in my dealings with people, I never felt I was discriminated against and never used my immigrant status to my advantage, as some minorities do. I have always been proud of my ethnic background which I openly acknowledged. While some people try to hide it, and even being ashamed of it, I actually frequently applied my inborn and acquired cultural traditions in my actions and in my work.

There are a number of other characteristics that I have learned and acquired during my extensive professional and public life which I would like to share with my readers in the form of concrete advice:

It is important to keep friends who would comfort you in your sorrow, even though they may abandon you, when you are down. You should always treat people fairly, be helpful to them and never burn bridges behind you. Always be yourself and don’t play games. Be forthright, stand straight and believe in what you are doing.

Irrespective of what position you hold, remember, that you cannot become complacent believing that you are irreplaceable and that nobody else could do your job as well as you do it. You always need to think ahead and constantly need to prove yourself and reaffirm your stand in the eyes of the higher-ups. Although you may not realize it, some of your most trusted friends may be waiting in the shadows for the moment you will fall flat on your face. Be trustworthy but trust none. This may sound cynical but this is a fact. We are in a highly competitive world where everybody is for himself and where only the fittest survive, as the saying goes.

If you attend meetings that matter, always be prepared, familiarize yourself with the issues, and have concrete proposals ready. In many meetings in which I participated, the people had a tendency to shoot from the hip and draw conclusions on superficial evidence and tried to convince others through emotional appeal rather than through logic and reason. Possessing solid information can turn the meeting around. In a situation, when one runs a meeting with a specific goal in mind, one should not leave the outcome of the meeting to chance, hoping that his/her authority will turn the meeting to his side.

As a leader of a group, advocate participatory management but don’t get “buddy-buddy” with the members of your group or your “under-links”. Don’t hide behind others in your decision-making. The final decisions should be your own responsibility; it should be decisive, resolute and clear cut. No decision may be more harmful than a bad decision, as the saying goes. The non-intended bad decision can always be corrected but indecisions may lead to disastrous results.

Don’t ever expect that others will take you out of the “jam” you got into. Nobody will fight your battles. At the end, it is you, and only you, who can overcome your obstacles. Don’t despair and learn from your mistakes.

You should have a vision with attainable goals, concrete plans and staked out markers to check on your progress. Don’t run so fast that you will lose your breath. Climb one step at a time and you will reach the top and your horizon.

When you are up and running, don’t ever brag about your deeds and your accomplishments. Although it may enlarge your ego, it will not add to your image or prestige. Such behavior may actually lower your esteem, lead to envy and may endanger your position.

I am ending this postscript with the advice to my readers to always do what their reason dictates and what is in their heart. If you believe in something strongly, don’t hesitate, just do it and you will succeed. If your deeds are sound and just, don’t worry what others think.

I hope I have been sufficiently explicit in stating my case and in plainly getting across “what makes me tick”.

Miloslav Rechcígl, Jr., or Mila, as he likes to be called, is one of the founders and past Presidents of many years of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), an international professional organization based in Washington, DC. Born in Czechoslovakia, a son of the youngest member of the Czechoslovak Parliament, he spent the War years under Nazi occupation and, after the Communist coup d’état, escaped to the West and, in 1950, immigrated to the US. After receiving a scholarship, he went to Cornell University where he studied from 1951 to 1958, receiving his B.S., M.N.S., and Ph.D. degrees there, specializing in biochemistry, nutrition, physiology, and food science.

He then spent two years conducting research at the National Institutes of Health, as a PHS postdoctoral research fellow. Subsequently, he was appointed to the staff of the Laboratory of Biochemistry at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). For some 10 years, while he was at NCI, he conducted extensive research relating to cancer biochemistry and enzyme turnover in vivo.

During 1968–69, he was selected for one year of training in a special PHS executive program in research management, grants administration, and science policy. This led to his appointment as Special Assistant for Nutrition and Health in the Health Services and Mental Health Administration. In 1970, he joined the Agency for International Development, US Department of State, as Nutrition Advisor and, soon after, was promoted to the position of Chief of Research and Institutional Grants Division. Later, he became a Director with the responsibility for reviewing, administering and managing AID research.

During his successful career at the US Agency for International Development, he was instrumental in organizing the Commission for Cooperation with Czechoslovakia, following the breakup of communism and return of democracy to the country. The members of the Commission were sent to Czechoslovakia on a fact-finding mission, visiting its academic, research and related institutions to assess their capabilities and needs with a view towards a variety of cooperative and supportive projects. This led to conducting seminars and a series of highly successful workshops on research management, science policy and grantsmanship in major academic centers in the country. In AID itself, Mila Rechcigl played a significant role in establishing a new innovative research program to assist the East European science, including Czechoslovakia, in major areas, such as agriculture, health, environment, industry, science and technology, and economics.

Dr. Rechcigl is the author or editor of over 30 monographs and handbooks in the field of biochemistry, physiology, nutrition, food science and technology, agriculture, and international development, in addition to a large number of peer-reviewed original scientific articles and book chapters.

Apart from his purely scientific endeavors as a researcher and science administrator, Dr. Rechcigl devoted over 50 years of his life to the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). In 1960–62 he served as secretary of the SVU Washington, D.C. Chapter. He was responsible for the first two Society’s World Congresses, both of which were a great success, and which put the Society on the world map. For a number of years, he then directed the publication program of the Society.

He also edited the Congress lectures and arranged for their publication, under the title The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture (1964, 682 p.) and Czechoslovakia Past and Present (1968, 2 volumes, 1900 p.). The publications received acclaim in the American academic circles and greatly contributed to the growing prestige of the Society worldwide.

Dr. Rechcigl was also involved, one way or another, with most of the subsequent SVU World Congresses, including the SVU Congresses in Prague, Brno, Bratislava, Washington, DC, Plzeň, Olomouc and České Budějovice. Prior to his last term as the SVU President (2004–06), he held similar posts during 1974–76, 1976–78, and again in 1994–96, 1996–98, 1998–2000, 2000–02, 2002–04.

Together with his wife Eva, he published eight editions of the SVU Biographical Directory, the last of which was printed in Prague in 2003. He was instrumental in launching a new English periodical Kosmas – Czechoslovak and Central European Journal. It was his idea to establish the SVU Research Institute and to create the SVU Commission for Cooperation with Czechoslovakia, and its Successor States, which played an important role in the first years after the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

He was also instrumental in establishing the National Heritage Commission with the aim of preserving Czech and Slovak cultural heritage in America. Under its aegis, he has undertaken a comprehensive survey of Czech-related historic sites and archival materials in the US. Based on this survey, he has prepared a detailed listing, Czech-American Historic Sites, Monuments, and Memorials, which was published through the courtesy of Palacký University in Olomouc (2004). The second part of the survey, bearing the title Czechoslovak American Archivalia, was also published by Palacký University (2004).

In this connection, he also organized several important conferences, one in Texas in 1997, the second in Minnesota (1999), the third in Nebraska (2001), and the fourth in Iowa (2003). Through his initiative, a special Working Conference on ‘Czech & Slovak American Materials and their Preservation’ was also held at the Czech and Slovak Embassies in Washington, DC in November 2003. It was an exceptionally successful conference which led to the establishment of the new Czech & Slovak American Archival Consortium (CSAAC). Later, he also organized, jointly with the ACSCC of North Miami, a conference on ‘Czech and Slovak Heritage on Both Sides of the Atlantic’, 17–20 March 2005. The conference was co-sponsored by the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, under the aegis of both Presidents of the Czech and Slovak Republics.

Among historians, Dr. Rechcigl is well known for his studies on history, genealogy, and bibliography of American Czechs and Slovaks. A number of his publications deal with the early immigrants from the Czechlands and Slovakia, including the migration of Moravian Brethren to America. In the last few years he has been working on the cultural contributions of American Czechs and Slovaks. A selection of his biographical portraits of prominent Czech-Americans from the 17th century to date has been published in Prague, under the title Postavy naší Ameriky (Personalities of our America) (2000; 350 p.). On the occasion of his 75th birthday, SVU published a collection of his essays, under the title Czechs and Slovaks in America (2005; 316 p.). Three years later, he published a voluminous monograph, On Behalf of their Homeland: Fifty Years of SVU, an eyewitness account of the history of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (2008; 671 p., 28 p. ill.). And finally, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, the SVU published his personal memoirs, Czechmate, From Bohemian Paradise to American Haven (2011). In the same year, Rechcigl published his unique Czech American Bibliography. A Comprehensive Listing with Focus on the US and with Appendices on Czechs in Canada and Latin America (2011). In 2013 he published Czech American Timeline. Chronology of Milestones in the History of Czechs in America and in 2015 Czech It Out. Czech American Biography Sourcebook. The latter, which has been patterned after the Almanac of Famous People (2011), provides a wealth of information on a variety of sources relating to biographical information about notable Czech Americans, including individual biographies, major national and local biographical compendia, ethnic sources and subject compendia, and finally family histories and genealogies.

In 2016, he wrote a 3-volume monumental comprehensive Encyclopedia of Bohemian and Czech American Biography, covering a universe, starting soon after the discovery of the New World, through the escapades and significant contributions of Bohemian Jesuits and Moravian Brethren in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the mass migration of the Czechs after the Revolutionary Year of 1848 up to the early years of the 20th century and the influx of refugees from Nazism and Communism. As the Czech Ambassador to the US, H.E. Petr Gandalovič noted in his Foreword to this book, Mila Rechcigl has written a monumental work, representing a culmination of his life achievement as a historian of Czech America. He compares him to the famed Thomas Čapek, who wrote his classical books about Czech immigrants in America, almost a century ago, whom he may have surpassed.

One of his latest endeavors has been a history of Czech Americans, under the title Beyond the Sea of Beer or Czech America as Few People Know It, published in Bloomington, IN, by AuthorHouse in 2017. It is a comprehensive history of emigrants from the Historic Lands of the Bohemian Crown and its Successor States, including Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, based on the painstaking lifetime research of the author. The reader will find lots of new information in this book that is not available elsewhere. The title of the book comes from a popular song of the famous Czech artistic duo, Voskovec and Werich, who described America in those words when they lived here, reflecting on their love for this country. It covers the period starting soon after the discovery of the New World to date. The emphasis is on the US, although Canada and Latin America are also covered. It covers the arrival and the settlement of the immigrants in various states and regions of America, their harsh beginnings, the establishment of their communities, and their organization. A separate section is devoted to the contributions of notable individuals in different areas of human endeavor, including Bohemians, Moravians, Bohemian Jews, and the Slovaks. Nothing like this has ever been published since the time Thomas Čapek wrote his classic The Čechs (Bohemians) in America some one hundred years ago.

In 2018, he authored Czechs Won’t Get Lost in the World, Let Alone in America, featuring a panorama of selected personalities, whose roots had origin in the Czech Lands and who, in the US, reached extraordinary success and who, with their activities, substantially influenced the growth and development of their new homeland. It is a saga of plain, as well as powerful, people whose influence and importance often exceeded the borders of the US. A great portion of included individuals may be unknown to readers since it concerns persons whose Czech origin was usually not known. The book was published in Bloomington, IN by AuthorHouse.

This was followed by another first, American Jews with Czechoslovak Roots, also published by AuthorHouse, a pioneering, comprehensive bibliography, bio-bibliography and historiography of writings relating to American Jews with ancestry in the former Czechoslovakia and its Successor States, the Czech and the Slovak Republics, which has never before been attempted. As the reader will find out, the listed individuals have been involved, practically, in every field of human endeavor, in numbers that surprise.

His latest two books bear the titles Notable Americans with Slovak Roots (2019) and Notable American Women with Czechoslovak Roots (2019). The purpose of these two monographs has been to correct some of the shortcomings that have existed in literature. No comprehensive study about the American Slovaks nor about the American Women of Czechoslovak ancestry has ever been attempted before. As these books demonstrate, the lack of existing information has, not at all, been a reflection of the paucity of work done by these individuals. Their contributions have been distinctive and truly remarkable.

In 1991, on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences awarded Mila Rechcigl the Hlávka Memorial Medal. Subsequently he was also given the Bolzano and the Comenius Medals. In 1997, he received a newly established prize “Gratias agit” from the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs. More recently, he was given an honorary title ‘Admiral of the Nebraska Navy’ by the Governor of Nebraska and the key to the Capital of Nebraska by the Mayor of Lincoln, and the SVU Prague Chapter awarded him ‘2002 Praha SVU Award’. In 2005, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic honored him by awarding him Jan Masaryk Medal for his contributions in preserving and fostering relations between the Czech Republic and the United States. In February 2010, President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic presented him a Silver Medal of the Senate for his efforts on behalf of Czechs abroad and for fostering of good name and the traditions of the Czech Republic. In 2012 he was awarded by the Minister of Interior of the Czech Republic Jan Kubice a medal for his lifetime contributions to the Czech archival science.