Peter Rudolph Hruby

Peter Rudolph Hruby, 96, died peacefully in his Annapolis home on September 26, 2017. Mr. Hruby was born in 1921 in Czechoslavakia; he fled to Switzerland as a political refugee when the Communist Party seized power in 1948. In Geneva, Mr. Hruby founded the periodical Skutecnost (Reality), a journal promoting European democracy, and began work on his PhD, which he returned to complete in 1978. Mr. Hruby worked for Radio Free Europe in Germany and then in the United States, after emigrating in 1957. He taught on US military bases through the University of Maryland, then in 1971 moved to Perth, Western Australia to join the faculty at Curtin University. In 2002 Mr. Hruby returned to Prague, where he taught at Charles University until 2007. During the course of his academic career, Mr. Hruby published numerous scholarly articles and four books. Mr. Hruby was married to Zdena Hyblová (now Zdena Heller) from 1953-1960; their daughter Katherine (Kacenka) Hruby lives in New York City. Mr. Hruby and Shirley Winter Hruby (d. 2004) were married in New York City in 1965, and enjoyed many happy years in Australia, where they raised their daughter Milena. Mr. Hruby moved to Annapolis in 2007 to be close to Milena and her family. During the last decade of his life he enjoyed Annapolis's symphony, ballet, opera, art galleries and fine dining, and shared his love for nature, music, and chess with Milena's family. He will be greatly missed by his daughters, his son-in-law Jeffrey Smith, and his adored grandsons Nathaniel and Caleb.