Alexander Bohdan Rudavsky

January 17, 1925 ~ February 26, 2014

Pebble Beach ~ Alexander B. Rudavsky passed away in Monterey. Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at Carmel Mission Basilica onThursday, March 6 at 10:30 AM. Eulogy delivered by Natica Rudavsky. A copy follows: Thank you all for being here to remember my father, Alexander Bohdan Rudavsky. I’d like to honor his life by sharing some stories that reflect the strength of character he has created as his legacy. The only child of Zenovia and Leo Rudavsky, he was born in Poznan, a relatively big city at the time in Poland. He reflected often on the golden age of his youth before the war and the many rewards of growing up in a loving and doting family. He enjoyed playing chess and was not afraid to play his mother for money…. And win.

His parents instilled in him faith in God and dedication to Catholicism. He was an alter boy, a great source of pride for him and his parents. Throughout his life he showed a great devotion to Mary and always wore his Miraculous Medal. You could always at night see him saying his prayers before bed and throughout his life, if he went out, his daily routine often included a stop at church to reflect. In the years we have lived in Pebble Beach, it was here at the Mission that he often spent time admiring its history and beauty.

As a child he adored his nanny, Pahwanha, whom he saw as his second mother, his advocate and protector. She even accompanied him on boy scout expeditions where she helped him accomplish goals allowing him to further his scouting career. She took him to see his first movie in 1937, Snow White, a moment he cherished throughout his life. She was his devoted friend, and he never forgot her. Beyond that, he idealized movies he saw of the West that inspired his inner hero. When he was a little boy, my father wanted to grow up to be a cowboy. He wanted to wear a white hat and save the day. Whenever I played chess with my father as a child, he wanted to be the white pieces, because the good guys always wear white.

There are a few other movies synonymous with the Rudavsky family. James Bond and Indiana Jones were his modern day elegant heroes. We often watched Pink Panther movies and I identify every time with something the Princess says about her father. “He governed his people with an iron hand, but he gave me a white pony for my fifth birthday.” It reminds me that my relationship with him was unique. My father gave me every possible gift. He was there to tuck me in, play shark in the pool, or help me with my math homework. He once bought me a purple glass blown dragon, it was meant to represent my bone tumor. He assured me that as my knight in shining armor, he would slay the dragon, to protect me. I already miss his witty character and gallant presence, but I feel warmed by the thought of his transcending love.

Through the course of his life, my father wore many hats. Student, professor, father, husband, son, friend, colleague, innovator, and that is only the tip of the iceberg. For a moment I‘d like to talk about my mother’s husband, Juanita’s husband. In 1954, A 28 year old man in Minnesota who had been through so much in his years, met a 17 year old mature beautiful girl, fell in love and began a lifelong partnership. He was cultured and suave and promised her the world. He delivered. They moved to Iran shortly after their wedding. A foreign, far away land, and embarked on a journey that would create a surreal fairytale of memories. Through all that life presented, they relied on one another.

I think my father would like for the story of his great love with my mother to be told…. This… way…. J Seeing as how my father was a great and noble athlete with manly attributes obvious to the female sort… he went one day to a dance. He met a beautiful young woman who was swept off her feet by his manly chest and endless charm. He promised to teach her to play tennis, if she would go out with him.. The rest is history, 58 years of dedication through the thick and thin of holy vows… My mother still can’t play tennis. She saw a man who was intelligent, ambitious and a man of his word. A man who never broke a promise. A husband. I envy the relationship they have shared, travel, companionship, partnership, time, growth, family, devotion, richer, poorer, sickness, health, and one daughter who loves them both so dearly….. there is no parting for souls who have lived so much for one another. Your beloved teddy bear will be with you every day, as you have been there for him.

My father was an avid sportman. He acknowledged that he was the last to be chosen for a basketball team but he excelled at soccer. He enjoyed tennis for exercise and challenge, and reminded me that my birth interrupted his match that December morning. He enjoyed the splendor of skiing in its most elegant form, ride to the top, enjoy the surroundings, shush down stopping for a pastry at a lodge along the way followed by music and dancing in the evening. Sounds pretty good to me. After settling in California, he supported the 49ers through every game, win or lose. He always primarily identified as European, an immigrant who had come through Ellis Island as a sponsored refugee, with $5 and a donut from the Red Cross. Football was a sport that he didn’t know from his youth but helped him feel assimilated to colleagues and friends. It became a great family pastime to gather and cheer for our team. His enthusiasm created two monsters in the process and in our final seasons he would sit between mom and I and remark, “you’re breaking my ears!!” because we would cheer a bit overenthusiastically. J

My father admired all that was beautiful in the world. Nature, animals, art and people. He was so fond of the mountains, remarked that because he had grown up in the mountains, spending time in his family dasha in the Carpathian mountains, he was always drawn to this beauty. He told great tales of his childhood pet, a deer, who was finally killed by a local wolf who broke into its enclosure. Despite this tragedy, he saw the beauty in wolves, his favorite animal. He loved the splendor of tall straight evergreen trees, being close to the stars, the roar of a strong stream of snow melt, and generally being a part of what he affectionately reffered to as god’s country. He quoted Kafka saying “Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” My father was truly young at heart.

Dad’s charm shined through not only in his personality but also his style. He was quite the dashing young man. He would choose a spy coat worn by a favored movie character, or sport swank Porsche sunglasses… and he never met a fragrance he didn’t spritz. Every time we went shopping in San Francisco, the family would reunite for the drive home in the car and mom and I took a sniff in the close quarters, look at each other and know… dad had not been able to resist the temptations of the perfume counter. He is our sweet smelling delicate flower. He also, in European tradition, found carrying a satchel to be quite useful. Some may call it a purse, or a man bag, but it is what it is. Long before this was fashionable or even comical, my father was doing what he did best, being himself. Often as a child, he left this item in restaurants or the like and I was sent back in to ask the host if any items had been found, because my dad thought he might have left his… bag. J

I often describe myself as a lifelong learner. My father had the magical ability to translate his knowledge into teaching. He was not only a lifelong learner, but a lifelong educator following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather whom he held in the highest esteem. He was a professor at San Jose State University for 25 years teaching civil engineering graduate courses along with guest courses taught at Stanford. He marveled at the fact that he could send people into the world with enough knowledge to become important contributors. It was one of his proudest accomplishments. He was profoundly gifted and his hard work, dedication and enthusiasm translated in the classroom to inspire students to live up to his standards and the bar that he set so high. He was not satisfied to only have one career. Saying that he was a hard worker doesn’t even scratch the surface. Originally, my father had bought about 12 acres of pear orchards in San Jose and thought to try his hand at being a gentleman farmer. After only one season, he realized he was meant to work with his brain, not his back. Alongside his wife, they opened Hydro Research Science in 1965. His education at the University of Minnesota and research work at San Anthony Falls laboratory, helped him complete his Phd through the University of Hanover. He gained experience traveling through European laboratories after being awarded the Freeman Scholarship. He was able at HRS to continue with his love of modeling and create over 200 structures, ranging from dams and spillways to flood control. The company assisted the US Army Corps of Engineers in the operation of the San Francisco bay model, which he was very proud to handle. His work covered many countries, Greece, Thailand, Venezuela to name a few. We here in California see his contributions at places like Pier 39, the spillway at lake San Antonio, San Onofre power plant and New Don Pedro dam. He loved what he did, and whether working on the Nile River, the Panama Canal, or USS Carl Vinson, he painstakingly cared for each project to ensure accuracy. He took pride in his work…. every step, every project. My father made lifelong friends through his career. Teaching colleagues, business associates, and his cherished team from HRS were all always in his thoughts.

Someone once said, “When an old man dies, a library is lost.” My father had so much knowledge, I wish I could have documented every morsel of his vast wisdom. When I was at UCSD, as many of you know, he wrote me a letter almost every day. The knowledge and stories he shared in these letters that I have saved and cherished is insurmountable. Much of what I share today stems from those letters. In reviewing them, I see that so many of his hopes and goals for what his life would hold have been accomplished in the last 15 years.

In the end, my father died much as he lived, with unparalleled strength, resilience and dignity. In the days he spent in the best of care we were told often that the end would come soon. I told them that a person who could live through a burst appendix at a time unprepared to treat that circumstance, a person who could overcome breaking both his legs at once skiing behind his horse as a child, and a person who had to walk from Munich to Vienna in winter for four months with his family during World War II… would be a fighter. His strong heart sustained him for seven days, so that my mother and I could share valuable time with him to tell him how much we love and cherish him. The man who gave us so many gifts, gave us one more by allowing us that time. He wanted to share a few last days with us to prepare for his journey. We know he is welcomed by his parents and friends and we imagine him meeting St. Peter and saying, “What’s new in the elegant world?”