Czech-American Activism
Apart from his purely scientific endeavors as a researcher and science administrator, Dr. Rechcigl devoted almost 50 years of his life to the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), an international organization, with headquarters in Washington, D. C. He was responsible for the first two Society's World Congresses, both of which were a great success and which put the Society on the world map. He also edited the Congress lectures and arranged for their publication, under the title The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture and Czechoslovakia Past and Present The publications received acclaim in the American academic circles and greatly contributed to the growing prestige of the Society worldwide.
Dr. Rechcigl 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, D.C., Plzeň, Olomouc and České Budějovice.Prior to his last term as the SVU President (2004–06), he held similar posts during 1974-76, 1976–78, and again in 1994-96, 1996–98, 1998–2000, 2000–02 and 2002-04.
In 1999, in conjunction with President Václav 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, the last of which was printed in Prague in 2003. He was instrumental in launching a new English periodical Kosmas. Czechoslovak and Central European Journal. He also proposed the establishment of the SVU Research Institute and the creation of the SVU Commission for Cooperation with Czechoslovakia, and its Successor States, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which played an important role in the first years after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Under the sponsorship of the SVU Research Institute, together with his colleagues, he conducted a series of workshops about research management and the art of "grantsmanship" for scientists and scholars, as well as for the administrators and science policy makers, at Czech and Slovak universities, the Academies of Sciences (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Slovak Academy of Sciences) and the Government.
He established the National Heritage Commission with the aim of preserving Czech and Slovak cultural heritage in America. Under its aegis, he had undertaken a comprehensive survey of Czech-related historic sites and archival materials in the US. Based on this survey, he has prepared a detailed listing, Czech-American Historic Sites, Monuments, and Memorials which was published through the courtesy of Palacký University of Olomouc (2004). The second part of the survey, bearing the title Czechoslovak American Archivalia,. was also published by Palacky University (2004).
Among historians, Dr. Rechcigl is well known for his studies on history, genealogy, and bibliography of Czech Americans and Slovak Americans. A number of his publications deal with the early immigrants from the Czech lands and Slovakia, including the immigration of Moravian Brethren to America. In the last few years he has been working on the cultural contributions of Czech Americans and Slovak Americans. A selection of his biographical portraits of prominent Czech Americans from the 17th century to date has been published in Prague, under the title Postavy nasí Ameriky (Personalities of our America). On the occasion of his 75th birthday, the Society published a collection of his essays, under the title Czechs and Slovaks in America, as a part of the East European Monographs series, distributed by the Columbia University Press.
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