Czechmate. From Bohemian Paradise to American Haven

Czechmate: book cover

A Personal Memoir of Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr.

We are pleased to bring to the attention of SVU members a new book of reminiscences of Mila Rechcigl, one of the founders and Past President of many years of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences.

These reminiscences are an intimate account of Mila Rechcigl’s saga, his fascinating life, his varied and successful professional career, and his highly visible public life, encompassing some fifty years, since the earliest childhood in a small hamlet in northeastern rural Bohemia to his government career in Washington, DC and spending his retirement years in active scholarship and voluntary work for non-profit organizations. He views his life as a chess game, in which he confronts various challenges head-on, usually ending with a “checkmate” in his favor. More information about the book can be found its Facebook page: “Czechmate.” See more also on Google Books.

Mila Rechcigl, as he likes to be called, is a versatile person with many talents, a man of science and organization professionally, and renaissance man by breadth of his knowledge and scholarly interests. Born in Czechoslovakia to a son of the youngest member of the Czechoslovak Parliament, he spent the War years under Nazi occupation and after the Communist’s coup d’état escaped to the West and immigrated to the US. He received training as biochemist at Cornell University and later served as a research biochemist at NIH. Following his additional training he became a science administrator, first at the DHEW and later at US Department of State and AID.

The book was published by AuthorHouse at Bloomington, Indiana, and can be purchased from their website. It can  also be ordered from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, or Barnes & Noble/NOOK. You may also be able to get it cheaper by ordering it directly from Mila Rechcigl at his address: svu1@comcast.net

In cooperation with the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, Washington, DC Chapter, the Czech Embassy in Washington, D.C. held a presentation and book signing of Miloslav Rechcigl’s personal memoirs on December 8, 2011, on the occasion of 50 years of publication activities of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). Zdenek David, Senior Scholar of the Woodrow Wilson Center, presented his remarks during the event, on behalf of SVU. [event flyer]