Tag Archives: dad Vaclav Konecny

Greenwich Meridian memoir, inspiration, Uncategorized

Happy 90th birthday to my father Professor Vaclav Konecny

July 23, 2024 Author Emma Palova Leave a comment

A man for all seasons with a lion’s heart of gold

Happy 90th birthday to my father Professor Vaclav Konecny. You have always been an inspiration to me. You’re a man for all seasons, all the time. If Ferris State University had the title Person of the Year, you would have received it every year because you are the dad of a century. Thank you for your kindness and leadership from the heart.

A true Leo, living up to his Zodiac sign, Dad is creative, courteous, funny, and passionate about everything he does, even if he has to fix the toilet. He does it to perfection. He has a heart of gold, as he seeks constantly to solve challenging problems surrounding him. And then he creates his own mathematical solutions.

Dad even figured out when he was going to die before he turned 90 because all of his siblings died in years ending with a nine, but God tricked him and let him live to celebrate 90 trips around the sun on this beautiful summer day in Michigan.

“Dad it’s so good to hear your voice,” I said this morning when I called him.

“I’d be happier if you couldn’t,” he said getting ready to drive to Cadillac to celebrate with Mom and Vas.

Driving has always been one of his hobbies, as he drove 1,500 miles to Florida in 2023 for one last time, always testing his skills.

Regularly, he published solved and unsolved math problems in Crux Mathematicorum and Math Horizons, past his retirement from Ferris State University in 2001.

Problem X-23 (Con(fluent) Ways of Hexpansion). Figure 45 shows two different ways of expanding an acute triangle ABC to a hexagon: either by extending each leg at each vertex by the length of the other leg at that vertex, or extending each leg at each vertex by the length of the opposite side. Show that the areas of the two hexagons so produced are equal.

The American Mathematical Society is publishing the book, tentatively entitled Celebrating Play(ground): 31 Years of Math Horizons Problems and the People Behind Them, edited by Alissa S. Crans and Glen T. Whitney.

At 90, Professor Konecny will be featured in this book in August. Stay tuned for more information.

Czech heritage, Czech traditions, Greenwich Meridian memoir, immigration, inspiration, local author, memoir, Michigan authors, relationships, Shifting Sands Short Stories, Uncategorized

Happy Birthday mom

August 23, 2020 emmapalova 1 Comment

Mom Ella turns 83 today

By Emma Palova

Big Rapids, MI – My mother, Ella Konecny, turns 83 on this beautiful summer day. We celebrated her birthday yesterday in Big Rapids with a cookout on the deck. Mom always puts on a feast: juicy ribs, coleslaw, mashed potatoes and her famous nutty cake roll, all preceded by a traditional Czech platter of cheese, salami and home-made pickles Znojmo style.

Dad Vaclav Konecny grills ribs on the deck overlooking my parents’ pretty garden. They grow and can their own delicious pickles.

Together with my father Vaclav, they’ve been living in this small university town, home to Ferris State University, for more than four decades.

Mom was born Drabkova in former communist Czechoslovakia on Aug. 23, 1937 in Zlin to a working class family. My grandparents Anna and Joseph Drabek worked hard to get mom into the university so she could become the future pharmacist.

My mother has inspired the memoir Greenwich Meridian, where East meets west about the family immigration saga. She didn’t want to leave the communist country after the Soviet invasion on the night of August 20-21 in 1968.

The memoir, slated for Oct. 16, 2020 publication is dedicated to both of my parents because they have always inspired me both in hard and good times with their dedication and perseverance. It is available now on preorder on Amazon at:

Greenwich Meridian Memoir is slated for Oct. 16, 2020 publication. It is available for preorder on Amazon. The cover was designed by graphic artist Jeanne Boss of Rockford.

Their journey from the Moravian hilly villages of Vizovice and Stipa to Big Rapids in Michigan was tumultuous with many twists and turns.

Some of the milestones included the 1973 return to hardline Czechoslovakia from Texas, and then the escape back into the New World for my dad in 1976. Mom joined him in 1980.

Dad landed the math professor job at the Ferris State University, and that finally anchored them permanently in their new home.

To this day, mom says she loved her bio lab technician job also at the university.

Their true story has also inspired my fiction in my first Shifting Sands Short Stories book. “The Temptation of Martin Duggan” contains some bits and pieces from the early years of immigration.

I wrote that story shortly after my immigration to the USA in 1989. When I compare some of the elements of the short story to the memoir, I consider them Visceral in character, coming from a gut feeling.

The main character in the story is professor Martin Duggan obsessed with his own quest for perfection.

May you both enjoy many more years of love, good health and optimism. Thank you for all your love and support.

For chapters “Prague Spring, Part I” & “Prague Spring, Part II from the memoir click on the following links: