Alexander T. Reckie July 18, 1926 – November 16, 2002
Alexander T. Reckie was born Aleksander Turecki in Baranowicze, Poland, into a family of architects, educators, and dreamers. At fourteen, Soviet soldiers loaded him into a pig transport cage and sent him east into Siberia. He survived a year in a labor camp — the starvation, the frozen fields, the darkness — and emerged still standing, still moving, still reaching forward.
He walked thousands of miles south with his father and brother to join the Polish II Corps under General Anders. At seventeen, he climbed Monte Cassino. A Polish pennant was raised over the ruins. A bugler played the ancient call of Kraków across the valley. Alexander came down from that mountain and never once made theater of what it had cost him.
He arrived in America in 1951 with a new name, a new language, and the same essential character he had carried since childhood. He joined the Navy, studied construction in Brooklyn, spent twenty-eight years inspecting the bridges and highways of New York City, and raised his son Stephan in Washington Heights with Sophie — his beloved wife, his partner, his piece of gold.
He led Boy Scouts for fifteen years. He earned the Order of the Arrow. He walked Dingo through the streets of Medford four times a day. He swam at the health club. He attended the American Legion Post 45. He gave away everything he had to people who needed it more, and he did it quietly, so no one would feel the weight of receiving.
Two hours before a pickup truck ended his life on November 16, 2002, he told his friend Steve that he'd had the best year of his life.
He held his dog's leash until he knew Dingo was safe. Then he let go.
He was seventy-six years old, and he had lived enough for several lifetimes — all of them with grace.
Beloved husband of Sophie. Father of Stephan. Friend to hundreds. A man who believed, after everything, in God, in love, and in his neighbors.