On July 30, 1930, a son was born to Marie and Miloslav Rechcígl in Mladá Boleslav and was named after his father. The miller and farmer from Chocnějovice near Mnichovo Hradiště was a rising star of the Agrarian Party. He was active in a number of economic and cultural associations and after the parliamentary elections in 1935 he became a deputy, the youngest to be elected during the First Republic.
After February 1948, both father and son emigrated. Miloslav Rechcígl, who wrote “mladší” (Jr.) after his surname out of respect for his father, settled in the United States in 1950. A fascinating life story unfolds, which would be enough to fully cover the lives and careers of several people. Míla Rechcígl, as he calls himself, is the father of two children, Jack E. Rechcigl and Karen Rechcigl Kollecas, and never misses an opportunity to thank his wife Eva for her help.
I leave Míla Rechcígl’s personal and family life to his future biographer, as well as his assessment as a political person. Unlike his father, who did not stop being a politician even in exile — he founded the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, was involved in the exile Agrarian Party, and worked for Radio Free Europe — Míla Rechcígl did not seek positions in political organizations. However, his political thinking and feelings are an inherent part of his activities. A true democrat, always willing to bring together people who have something to say and can multiply their strengths. You can tell this in personal contact with him. Right at the beginning of our cooperation he put aside titles and suggested that we communicate on a first-name basis. I could turn to him at any time with any problem.
The habit of sharing knowledge and experience is related to Míla Rechcígl’s “third life,” his pedagogical activity. In the second half of the 1950s he lectured at the prestigious Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Naturally, after 1989 he offered consultations and seminars to Czech and Slovak universities, introducing their staff to the secrets of grantsmanship, science policy and research management.
We now come to Rechcígl’s fourth area of life, his scientific work. Its evaluation would require a comprehensive study. He graduated from Cornell University with a degree in biochemistry, physiology and nutritional science, and worked as a research biochemist at the federal National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. In the late 1960s Rechcígl’s life as a scientist began to intertwine with his official career. In 1969 he became an expert at the Ministry of Health, and in 1970 an advisor on nutrition issues at the Agency for International Development at the US Department of State, where he soon became the director of the research grant department. Prof. Miloslav Rechcígl, B.S., M.N.S., Ph.D., is the author or co-author of a number of scientific monographs and studies as well as reference publications devoted to the biochemistry of cancer, enzyme research, agriculture, and the issues of nutrition and food systems in an international context.
A characteristic feature of the jubilee appears to be his external organizational work. When the name Rechcígl is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). It was established in 1958 and Miloslav Rechcígl Jr. participated in the organization of practically all of its congresses. The first was held in Washington in 1962, when the SVU had 200 members from the USA and Canada. It gradually expanded its activities to other countries, including Czechoslovakia after 1989. The number of members gradually increased tenfold. In addition to the information newsletters, readers also sought out the magazines Proměny and Kosmas. Together with his wife Eva, Míla edited the directory of SVU members, the Biographical Directory of the Members of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (1966–2003). In 1974–1978 and again in 1994–2006 he held the post of president of the society.
After 1989 the SVU moved some of the world congresses to Czech and Slovak university cities. I participated in the congresses in Olomouc and in České Budějovice, where I organized a symposium on Czech archives and sources for the history of Czechs abroad with my colleague from the National Archives, Jan Kahuda, and Milena Secká from the Náprstek Museum in Prague. Rechcígl retrospectively evaluated the seminar as one of the most interesting meetings within the congress; moreover, he himself contributed to its success with an informative contribution.
Míla Rechcígl’s other four lives are connected to his publication activities, reinforced by a deep interest in history, genealogy, bibliography and archival science. Míla Rechcígl diligently “discovers America” — that is, the Czech and Slovak one — and the personalities with domestic roots who contributed to American civilization. In doing so he continues, surpasses and updates the work of Tomáš Čapek, a respected historian of Czechs in America.
Míla Rechcígl has shown the richness of the Czech archival heritage in America, while admitting that even the overview of archival sources in his guide Czechoslovak American Archivalia is only a fraction of the sources, which mostly inevitably disappear in families or in vanishing associations. He saw the preservation of the archival heritage of Czechs and Slovaks in America as part of the effort to preserve the cultural monuments of their ancestors, as evidenced by the publication Czech-American Historic Sites, Monuments, and Memorials. In 2003, at his invitation, my colleague Michal Ďurovič from the National Archives and I attended an international conference in Washington, D.C., entitled Czech and Slovak American Archival Materials and their Preservation, which raised the issue of comprehensive protection of the Czech archival heritage abroad.
In his “tenth life,” the celebrant is an archivist at heart with the responsibility of preserving the heritage of compatriots in America. For several years he worked as archivist for the Society. The central registry of archival materials of the Czech Republic includes the Society’s fund and the personal fund of Miloslav Rechcígl Jr., stored in the National Archives, which are therefore available to all researchers. Rechcígl also provided a comprehensive collection of documents on the history of the SVU to the University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Research Center, the University of Nebraska, and the Center for Exile Studies of Palacký University in Olomouc. Miloslav Rechcígl has received numerous awards both abroad and in the Czech Republic, and I am glad that they include the Medal for Merit to Czech Archival Science, which the Minister of the Interior of the Czech Republic awarded to the jubilant in 2012 at my initiative. I sincerely wish him good health and that he maintains his enthusiasm for life.