SVU-DC is delighted to inform you that the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs awarded a medal of Merit in Diplomacy to one of our most distinguished members, Dr. Miloslav (Mila) Rechcigl Jr. He is receiving this great honor for his lifetime contribution to the advancement of Czech-American Relations. Mila has been essential to the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences’ mission throughout the years. He is a native of Mladá Boleslav, Czechoslovakia, who has lived in the US since 1950. After receiving a scholarship, he went to Cornell University, where he studied from 1951-58, receiving his BS, MNS, and Ph.D. degrees specializing in biochemistry, nutrition, physiology, and food science.
Mila then spent two years of research at the National Institutes of Health as a postdoctoral research fellow. Subsequently, he joined the Laboratory of Biochemistry staff at the National Cancer Institute. From 1968-69, the United States Public Health Service selected him for a one-year executive training 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 as Nutrition Advisor and was promoted to the position of Chief of Research and Institutional Grants Division soon after. Later he became a Director with the responsibility for reviewing, administering, and managing AID research.
Mila is also the author or editor of over thirty books and handbooks in biochemistry, physiology, nutrition, food science and technology, agriculture, and international development, in addition to a large number of scientific articles and book chapters.
Apart from his scientific endeavors, Mila devoted almost 50 years of his life to the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). In 1960-62 he served as secretary of SVU-DC, and he was responsible for the first two Society’s World Congresses, both of which were a great success and put the SVU on the world map. 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 significantly contributed to the growing prestige of SVU worldwide.
Mila was also involved, one way or another, with most of the subsequent SVU World Congresses, including the recent SVU Congresses in Prague, Brno, Bratislava, Washington, Plzen, and Olomouc. He was SVU’s President from 1974-78 and again from 1994-2006. In 1999, in conjunction with President Havel’s visit to Minnesota, he organized a memorable conference at the University of Minnesota on “Czech and Slovak America: Quo Vadis?”
Together with his wife Eva, he published eight editions of the SVU Biographical Directory, which was finalized in 2003. He was instrumental in launching a new English periodical Kosmas – Czechoslovak and Central European Journal. It was Mila’s idea to establish the SVU Research Institute and create the SVU Commission for Cooperation with Czechoslovakia and its Successor States, which played an essential role in the first years following the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Under the sponsorship of this Research Institute, Mila and his colleagues conducted a series of seminars about research management and grantmaking for scientists, scholars, administrators, and science policymakers at Czech and Slovak universities, the Academies of Sciences, and the Government.
He was also instrumental in establishing the National Heritage Commission to preserve 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, Mila prepared a detailed listing, Czech-American Historic Sites, Monuments, and Memorials published through the courtesy of Palacky University in Olomouc (2004). The second part of the survey, bearing the title Czechoslovak American Archivalia, was also published by Palacky University (2004).
Dr. Rechcigl is also well known among historians for his studies on history, genealogy, and bibliography of American Czechs and Slovaks. A number of his publications deal with early immigrants from the Czechia and Slovakia, including the migration of Moravian Brethren to America. In the last few years, he has been researching American Czechs and Slovaks and their cultural contributions to the US and the world. A selection of his biographical portraits of prominent Czech-Americans from the 17th century to present, published in Prague, under the title Postavy naší Ameriky (Personalities of our America) (2000; 350 p.). On his 75th birthday, SVU published his essays under the title Czechs and Slovaks in America.
Three years later, he published a voluminous monograph, On Behalf of their Homeland: Fifty Years of SVU, an eyewitness account 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 memoirs, Czechmate, From Bohemian Paradise to America 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. In 2015, Mila published Czech It Out: Czech American Biography Sourcebook, patterned after the Almanac of Famous People (2011), which provides a wealth of biographical information about notable Czech Americans.
In 2016, Mila completed his Encyclopedia of Bohemian and Czech-American Biography, in which he recorded the lives of remarkable members of our diaspora from the times of the early settlers in the New World to the waves of refugees escaping 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.
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 lands of the Bohemian Crown, Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic.
In 2018, Mila completed Czechs Won’t Get lost in the World, Let Alone in America, a book that features personalities originating from Czech Lands who substantially influenced America’s growth and development. Another book followed this: American Jews with Czechoslovak Roots, a unique historiography of writings relating to American Jews with ancestry from Czechoslovakia and the Czech and the Slovak Republics. Mila’s two last books bear the titles Notable Americans with Slovak Roots (2019) and Notable American Women with Czechoslovak Roots (2019).
For his outstanding achievements, Mila Rechcigle has received numerous awards. In 1970, the International College of Applied Nutrition presented him an Honor Scroll to recognize his contributions to their scientific program and progress. In 1978, SVU recognized his impact on natural sciences by bestowing on him its highest award, Honorary Membership. In 1991, on its 100th anniversary, the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences awarded him the Hlávka Memorial Medal. Subsequently, he received the Bolzano and the Comenius Medals. In 1998 the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs awarded Mila with a newly established prize, Gratias agit. 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; the SVU Prague Chapter awarded him the 2002 Praha SVU Award. He also received a special commendation for the “development of academic, cultural and social relations between the Czech Republic and the expatriate communities.” In 2005, the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs honored Mila with the Jan Masaryk Medal for fostering relations between the Czech Republic and the United States. In February 2010, the President of the Czech Senate presented him with a Silver Medal of the Senate for his efforts to promote Czechs abroad. In 2012, the Minister of Interior of the Czech Republic Jan Kubice awarded him a medal for his lifetime contributions to the Czech archival science.
As you can see, Folks, Mila has been living the life of a true renaissance man. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, we cannot adequately celebrate this outstanding achievement but rest assured that we will be honoring our former SVU President and this remarkable member of our diaspora as soon as the virus passes. Mila, we are grateful for all the work you have done through the years, and we congratulate you on this well-deserved award!
We look forward to many more of your achievements and contributions to SVU and the global academic community.