Rudolph Waclav "Rudy" Krejci

1929 - 2018

University of Alaska Fairbanks Professor Emeritus Rudolph (Rudy) Waclav Krejci passed away on Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018, three months shy of his 90th birthday. Surrounded by his loving family, friends, and treasured Pekingese companion Mitja, it was a truly peaceful departure. A most extraordinary man, teacher, storyteller, philosopher, and rebel, he touched so many here in Fairbanks, the state of Alaska, and beyond.

Rudy came to Fairbanks in the fall of 1960, where he was offered a contract by University President Patty to teach Russian and German. Two years later, he established the Philosophy program and 13 years after that, the Humanities program. In 1966, Rudy and his colleague Walter Benesch founded the UAF Socratic Society, which catered to philosophically-minded students and attracted renowned thinkers from around the world, including Eugene Wigner, Harrison Salisbury, Walter Kaufmann, Sidney Hook, John Archibald Wheeler, and Keith Runcorn. In 1975, after one year as Dean of Arts and Letters, he established the College of Arts and Sciences now known as the College of Liberal Arts. Rudy taught thousands of students during his 37-year tenure as a formal educator at UAF. After retirement he returned to teaching, offering philosophy and humanities courses twice a year for the Osher Life Long Learning Institute, finishing his last class of instruction in Spring 2017 at age 88. He was widely known as a remarkable teacher endowed with a gift for performative oratory, a rich wellspring of experiential knowledge, and a deeply engaging and charismatic Czech-accented voice that enabled him to take abstract philosophical concepts and explain them in simple yet profoundly insightful ways.

Rudy was born in Hrušky, Czechoslovakia, on March 4, 1929, a decade after the country's birth under the leadership of his philosophical hero, President T. G. Masaryk. His mother was a Moravian-Slovak with a Czech education and professional training in the culinary arts. His father, a railwayman, was a Czechoslovak who received a basic education solely in German. Rudy received an education that placed a balance on both the body and mind. He developed an enthusiasm for sports at a young age, becoming a gifted athlete especially in hockey, tennis, and soccer, even receiving offers to play soccer professionally as a young adult. He cultivated his prodigious mind by learning to communicate in many languages: Czech, German, Russian, French, English, Latin, and Old Church Slavonic. In his formative years, he built an extensive knowledge of literature, history, mathematics, science, the arts, and music, learning to play several different instruments such as the piano, guitar, and violin. As a child, Rudy also showed an interest in architecture and design. At the age of thirteen, his father asked him to design two family houses for his two brothers in Hubenov and in Vyskytná in Bohemia, Czechoslovakia. If that wasn't enough, in 1947-48, Rudy also worked as a detective for Wijs Miller Detective Agency in Brno, Moravia. He studied at gymnasium, roughly equivalent to high school plus 1 year of college, in Kromeríž and Brno, where he was formally introduced to philosophy by professor Antonin Kríž, who translated Aristotle's works into the Czech language.

During his teenage and early adult years, Rudy became more politically active, fighting against Nazism and Soviet-style Communism and becoming a vocal supporter of intellectual and cultural freedom, even when his personal safety and freedom were at peril. Serving the Czech Resistance towards the end of World War II, 16-year-old Rudy lost a close friend and barely escaped with his own life after being shot at by retreating SS troops. After the war and the collapse of Czechoslovakia's democratic government, Rudy continued to stand up to political oppression. His studies were terminated on May 1, 1949 due to his membership of an anticommunist dissident student group. Rudy was forced to go into hiding, confined to a secret room in his parents' apartment where he remained continuously for five years. In early May 1954, with the help of his father, he escaped from Communist Czechoslovakia hiding in a wooden box placed inside a coal wagon and covering himself with vinegar and mustard to avoid detection by border patrol dogs and guards. He arrived safely in Allied-occupied (including Soviet-held) Vienna, Austria where he sought and received asylum at the American Consulate. Suspected of being a Russian spy because of his knowledge of various languages and a seemingly unusual escape, Rudy was investigated by the American CIA and French Intelligence for over a year. He eventually traveled westward to Tirol, where from 1954-1959, he studied at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, majoring in philosophy, psychology, Russian history, and Russian literature. During his years as a university student, Rudy contributed political articles for BBC London, Radio Free Europe in Munich, and Russian Radio Liberty. He also visited the United States in 1957-1958, living primarily in San Francisco where he worked various jobs ranging from an engineer for Bechtel Corporation and Bethlehem Steel, a security guard, and a waiter at a popular Czech restaurant that attracted Hollywood stars including John Wayne, Jack Lemon, and Bing Crosby. Returning to Austria to complete his studies, Rudy received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1959. After marrying beautiful and elegant Helene Wachtler of Innsbruck in August that year, he made his way back to San Francisco working several of his old jobs and new ones before securing a position at UAF.

Rudy's world view was shaped by the philosophies of Xenophanes and fellow Pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Ockham, Hume, Comte, Masaryk, Husserl, Einstein, Bohr and the Copenhagen School, Wittgenstein, Gödel, Sorokin, and Karl Popper. Popper's seminal works on philosophy of science and political theory, Conjectures and Refutations, The Poverty of Historicism, The Open Society and Its Enemies, and the concept of Three Worlds particularly informed and strengthened Rudy's own philosophy. Those writings provided him the metaphysical, epistemological, and axiological framework for teaching and living. Thanks to friend and actress Vera Fusek Peters, Rudy was able to visit his philosophical father figure one last time before the latter's death in 1994.

Rudy lectured on philosophy in the USA, Canada, Europe, and Asia and cooperated with the International Wittgenstein Symposium in Kirchberg, Austria, Ralph Siu's panetics in Washington D.C., Viktor Frankl's logotherapy in Vienna, and Hiroshi Takashima's humanistic anthropology in Tokyo. He published many philosophical papers as well as a book containing an introduction to and a translation of an invaluable journal written by the fellow Czech figure, polar explorer, trader, and cultural symbol of individual freedom, Jan Welzl.

A philosopher and rebel, Rudy fought throughout his life for individual, political, and intellectual freedom. In the early 1960s, during his first years as an employee of UAF, he risked his job vocally opposing the university's support of Project Chariot, a controversial scheme by the federal government to detonate up to six nuclear bombs along the northwest coast of Alaska in order to create a new deepwater harbor for future mineral extraction. In 1993, Rudy and his colleague Jack Distad, helped to rehabilitate scientists William Pruitt and Leslie Viereck with honorary doctorate degrees for their principled stand against the government's proposal 30 years earlier.

One other poignant example of Rudy's unwavering commitment to human freedom occurred in 1989. Throughout his life, Rudy seemed to have a knack for being a witness to and a participant in the Zeitgeist. Visiting Beijing in late May that year, he proudly marched in solidarity with Chinese students and protestors at Tiananmen Square. That experience, followed by reports of the subsequent massacre as well as the more hopeful turn of events in Communist Europe, particularly the successful Velvet Revolution within his home country of Czechoslovakia, left a deepening impression on him. Never one to remain silent, he spoke truth to power and acted according to his conscience.

Formerly retiring from UAF in 1997, Rudy became Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Humanities after 37 years of service for the university. In 2009, Governor Sean Parnell presented Rudy with the Governor's Awards for the Humanities.

When Rudy wasn't teaching, traveling, or playing sports, he also liked to use his hands. Never idle, this often involved growing a garden, tinkering with cars and other mechanical contraptions, or working around the house – a Tirolean-style home still standing that he began building in the mid-1960s with the help of his parents, wife Helene, and friends. In the early 1970s, he enlisted the help of student and dog musher Sonny Lindner to construct a special log cabin on his recently purchased property north of Fairbanks. This picturesque cabin became a home away from home for him and the rest of the family. Each summer and occasional winter, he took steps to improve the cabin and property.

Rudy was also a lover of animals, particularly three Pekingese that served as companions throughout the last third of his long life. He often observed and reflected philosophically on their behavior and decision-making cognitive processes. Rudy saw the human in animals and the animal in humans and noted how differences between them were ones of degree and not of kind.

Rudy was a complicated man who made decisions that often complicated his life and the lives of those closest to him. Despite these complexities, he was an uncharacteristically giving man and one ever willing to help others in time of need. Though he faced great hardships, especially during his teenage years and early adulthood – World War II, the loss of his only sibling due to disease following the war, subsequent political turmoil, and in-house confinement – Rudy managed to remain resilient, warm-hearted, and hospitable throughout his life. His cheerful disposition was enduring and infectious. He could light the room with his gleaming blue eyes, dry sense of wit, animated gesticulations, and hypnotic storytelling. Together with his wife Helene, they raised four healthy and hard-working children, and instilled in them the values of family, community, and supporting others.

Rudy was preceded in death by his parents Josefa Krejcí (née Tomaštíková) and Rudolf Krejcí; younger sister Sonja; and two much beloved Pekingese Mushi and Schatzi. He is survived by his wife Helene; daughter Sonja, son-in-law, Bill Clark, their children Dylan and Peyton; son Eric and Barbara; daughter Anita and children Malia, Kiara, and Vaughn; son Paul; several cousins and in-laws, including Jirí Kuciel, František Krejcí, and Bob Chudoba, a loyal friend, "bodyguard", and caretaker of Rudy's during his last six months of life; and cherished Pekingese Mitja. Finally, the entire Krejci family would like to extend their gratitude to staff of the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, Tanana Valley Clinic, First Care, Home Health Care, Equinox Physical Therapy, and Aurora Foot and Ankle Surgical Specialists for the compassionate care given to Rudy.

A celebration of life will be held during the afternoon of Sunday, May 5, 2019 at Mushers Hall in Fairbanks. Please come and share your stories! For more information about Rudy's extraordinary life, watch the Youtube video produced by Dan O'Neill and entitled Dr. Rudy Krejci: Philosopher & Rebel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEajCg3Suts

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in memory of Rudy to the Rudy Krejci Memorial Scholarship at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This scholarship supports students studying philosophy and humanities at UAF's College of Liberal Arts. Contributions may be made online at https://engage.alaska.edu/uaf; please note "In Memory of Rudy Krejci." Checks can also be mailed to: UA Foundation, P.O. Box 755080, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775. Please make checks payable to "UA Foundation" and include "In memory of Rudy Krejci" in the memo. If you have questions, please contact the UAF Development and Alumni Relations at 907-474-2619.