My Father Died.




Here is the obituary my sister wrote, and I have some photos online here.

Col. Jueri J. Svjagintsev (Retired Army), M.D., Ph.D., MHA

Col. Jueri J. Svjagintsev, (Retired Army), M.D., Ph.D., MHA, 84, died at home of Parkinson’s Disease on November 7, 2005. His loyal and loving wife, Margareta “Reta”, had nursed him during the last stages of his illness. She always called him her “blond Russian” and he thought of her as “his German refuge”. Jueri was born of Russian parents in Warsaw, Poland on February 18, 1921. He grew up with his sister, Larissa, and his mother, Apolinaria Alexandrovna nee Vvedenskaia, in Tallinn, Estonia among Russian relatives and friends. His father, Jueri Juerivich Svjagintsev, IV, an officer in the Guard of Tsar Nicholas II, died when Jueri was only four. At the onset of WWII, Jueri was separated from his mother and sister, was sent to a concentration camp, and suffered great deprivation and hardship before finally ending up in Erlangen, Germany, where he met his future wife, Margareta Heider. They married in 1949 and both graduated with a medical degree from the University of Erlangen in 1950.

Jueri and Margareta immigrated to the United States with 2 children, a piano and $10, and Jueri received his American physician’s license in 1955 in Chicago. Although private practice was his original aim, Jueri was drafted into the Army Reserve at age 34 as a Captain. He decided to make the Army his career, served throughout the world for a long and illustrious 35 years and retired as a Colonel in 1981. He served as a Flight Surgeon and earned a Masters in Hospital Administration in 1970 from Baylor University. Jueri served in Vietnam in 1965-66 and created the Air Mobile Surgical Pod, an airborne surgical room, flown directly by helicopter into the battlefield to aid wounded soldiers. He had top-secret clearance for many years and served at the highest government echelons for operations during the Cold War. His destinations included Germany, Austria, Ethiopia, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Scotland and Iran. His tours of duty with his family included many in the United States as well as overseas. Among his many honors are the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star (for gallantry in Vietnam), the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal (for combat flying), the Joint Service and Army Commendation Medals, the Armed Forces Service and Vietnam Service Medals, the National Defense Service Medal, the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, the Reserve Service Medal and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm (for combat). He also earned two Presidential Citation Badges. After retirement, Jueri worked for the Texas Rehabilitation Commission as a physician consultant for fourteen years.

Predeceasing Jueri are his parents and sister. Tasha, his Siberian husky, died of old age in 1994. Jueri is survived by his wife and partner of 56 years, Margareta; his daughter, Larissa (Lara)) White and son-in-law, Bob White; daughter, Tamara (Tammy) Svjagintsev; son and daughter-in-law, Jueri H. Svjagintsev and Melissa (Mara) Eurich; granddaughter and husband, Shannon and Igor Sandrea; grandson, Yuri Andre Svjagintsev; and great-granddaughter, Sofia Sandrea. His niece, Alyonashka Knoll and her children, Anna and Olga, live in Germany. Luna, the cat he very reluctantly adopted, remains peacefully serene in the family home.

Jueri’s great spirit, strength and determination were born during his youth and these traits never deserted him in later challenges. He spoke seven languages and was a worldwide traveler both in early circumstance and throughout his career. His displacement from his homeland and family caused him great pain and he never felt really “at home” in the hundreds of cities and posts he passed through. He revisited Tallinn in his seventies and experienced the music, atmosphere, climate and memories that had haunted him always. Jueri constructed beautiful furniture, was a talented painter, and could repair anything. He was a great collector, e.g., pack rat, and never wasted anything. He felt his garage was an inspirational tribute to organization and it remains chock-full of tools, boxes, and containers of all shapes and sizes. You never know when you may need an octagonal plastic orange box with two drawers.

Some would describe his sense of humor as sardonic, but his wonderful smile smoothed the edges of somewhat sarcastic comments. He was fiercely protective of his family and adopted country although he never saw the world through rose-colored glasses. He rescued his teenage son and daughters from various high-school mishaps and threatened deportations from foreign countries. He was exceptionally close to Shannon, his granddaughter and was a guardian to his grandson, Yuri Andre, as well. Jueri loved to torture friends and family with brain-teasers and delighted in asking such questions as “How many tanks would it take to displace the water in Lake Erie?” Logic and geopolitics were his passions and people would scatter when he started to expound on various theoretical examples.

After his first heart attack, Jueri became a daily walker, charting his progress on handwritten graphs posted on the bathroom walls along with his weekly weight fluctuations. Jueri never learned to use a computer but he would have been an avid user of software programs. Jueri, the doctor, was also a big believer in self-diagnosis and self-medication and prescribed himself a defibrillator at age 82.

He thought he would live forever through sheer determination. Although he didn’t manage that feat, his generosity, determination, force and spirit remain with us through the rest of our lives.

Many thanks to Hospice Austin. Vigil and Rosary Wednesday, 6-8 PM at Cook-Walden. Funeral Mass Thursday at 2 PM. In lieu of flowers, please send any donations to Hospice Austin.

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Since this is a weblog that focuses on political issues some might be wondering what he thought of the Iraq War. He specifically gave me permission to wear his military shirt, with his name on it, to anti-war demos. This, in spite of his fear that they would retaliate by messing with his pension... they are doing that anyway.

After recently perusing his massive collection of history books I have to conclude that he was a conspiracy "theorist" the margins are full of his comments contradicting the "well known". While he did not advocate as I do you should have heard him critiquing the evening news.




Posted: Wed - November 9, 2005 at 01:49          

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