1910 - 2005

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• Birth	14 Sep 1910	Kladno, Bohemia (Czech Republic)
  Gender	Male
  Died	6 Feb 2005	Black River Falls, Wisconsin
  Buried	21 Feb 2005	Memorial Service, Saint Ansgar Catholic Church, Blair, Wisconsin
  Person ID	I60505	Brainard (Brainerd) / Foster / Fish
  Last Modified	07 May 2005 00:00:00
  Family 1	Elizabeth Rogers NEWELL, b. 22 Mar 1907, Bradford, McKean County, Pennsylvania
  Children	1. AXMAN
  Family ID	F26202	Group Sheet
  Married	Abt Jun 1952
  Family ID	F26226	Group Sheet

• Notes

  Obituary of Alois Vaclav Dryak: Alois Vaclav Dryak, a resident of Parkside Nursing Facility, Black River Falls, WI, passed away peacefully in his sleep on the night of Sunday, February 6, 2005, following a year of continuous decline. He was 94 years old. Alois was preceded in death by his wife, MaryJane McGowan Dryak of Cincinnati, OH and his brother, Antonin Dryak, Praque, Czechoslovakia (CZ). He is survived in death by: his sons, Anthony (Loraine) Dryak, Alma Center, WI; John M. Dryak, Taylor, WI; Michael (Faith) Axman, Elkhart, IN; as well as seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Though a resident of Wisconsin since 2000, he was a native of Czechoslovakia, and had resided in Cincinnati, Ohio for most of his adult life. Born of Antonin Dryak and Maria (Budinska) Dryak of Kladno, CZ on Sept 14, 1910, Alois was raised in and around the city of Prague, CZ. He came to the United States as a foreign exchange student to pursue a Masters Degree in Engineering from Penn State University in 1935. Following his degree he returned to his beloved Czechoslovakia. He formed The Amertool Distributorship of Europe representing various US companies, including Cincinnati Milling Machine Company. Caught in the turmoil of WWII, Alois was an active part in the resistance movement, by helping to provide intelligence information to the allies. He survived the Nazi horrors and helped in the allied efforts to forge peace after the war as a translator. In 1948, as the communists consolidated control over CZ, and at the urging of his father, he left CZ on the last plane out and flew to Paris, France. He resided in Paris, France and in Norway for two years, while waiting for sponsorship to become a United States citizen. The president of Cincinnati Milling Machine Company provided that sponsorship. Alois moved to Cincinnati, OH with Cincinnati Milling Machine Company (later known as Cincinnati Milacron), met and married MaryJane McGowan in the summer of 1952. Following the births of Tony and Jack, Alois returned to Europe with his young family. There, he worked as the manager of Amertool, representing Cincinnati Milacron for 10 years, returning to Glendale, Ohio, in 1966. In his work with Cincinnati Milacron between 1966 and retirement, he developed and patented the Cinturn Macro Programming System, which helped to advance and simplify the programming of numerically controlled turning machinery (lathes) in the machine tool industry. Following retirement from the company in 1975, Alois continued to do computer programming for Cincinnati Milacron as an independent consultant, completing an association of over 40 years with them. Alois was always conscious of treating others fairly and with respect. He went out of his way to help others; whether they were caught under the communistic rule of post- war Czechoslovakia, or here in the inner city systems of the USA. He loved Nature, Mathematics, History, Maps and the Arts. He was well traveled abroad and in the US, and spoke 6 languages fluently, in his prime. He will truly be missed by his family and loved ones. A Memorial Service will be held for Alois Dryak, on Monday, February 21, 2005, at St. Ansgar Catholic Church, Blair, WI at 1:00 pm. Submitted: 2/8/05 (LHD) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grandpa won a scholarship at Penn State through the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity. He completed his masters degree there in Mechanical Engineering. Grandpa went to Penn State in late 1936. He stayed a few weeks at the fraternity house and then just before Christmas he hitchhiked to New York City. There he bought a 1928 Model A Ford for $80 from some friends. He drove it back to Penn State in several feet of snow. Before the war Grandpa had a business trip to Bucharest, Romania. He was asked to smuggle some papers for the underground. He hid the papers behind the toilet in the car adjacent to his on the train. He delivered the papers without knowing what they contained, and became friends with the contact that he delivered them to. While he was in Bucharest the Germans invaded Poland. Grandpa returned to Prague because he was concerned for his parents. There was alot of food in Bucharest and food was already scarce in Prague, so he brought a huge block of lard with him. When the inspectors came around on the train he said that it was an entire pig up there and made it sound so disgusting that they didn't want to see it. When he got to Prague he divided the lard with his parents, his brother and one friend. (Grandpa also talks about being arrested by the Hungarians on this trip ... check details). One of the men that he met in Romania had been the leader of the Czech Christian Democrat party. He had fled first to Warsaw and then to Romania, where he was involved in anti-Nazi broadcasts. Grandpa became his friend. When he returned to Prague he gave a picture of the two of them to the man's girlfriend. During a raid the Gestapo confiscated that picture, and Grandpa lived with the knowledge that the Gestapo held that incriminating piece of evidence during the entire duration of the war. During the War Grandpa had to hide his photo album from a school trip in 1934 to Russia, and his bank account booklet from Chase Manhattan Bank. He hid the photo album in the basement of his offices. Someone found it and stole it. His bank account booklet he kept hidden on risk of death and after the war he went to Chase Manhattan Bank to get his funds. He was told by the teller that the funds had been confiscated because he was in Nazi territory. Fortunately the teller who had opened the account for Grandpa before the war had since become the Bank President, and he was able to get his funds. He used these funds to buy a car. Grandpa was in Pilzen on some business at Skoda works during the war. He also visited his Aunt Marenka Budinska's father (Kubat, the Choir Director at the Cathedral) there. He was traveling with a German engineer (his friend Eric T. who's life he later saved) and when they boarded the train to return to Prague he saw a beautiful woman. He told his traveling companion not to sit by him, but that he was going to save that spot for the woman. His plan worked out and he learned that her name was Lida Baarova. She invited him to come see her at the theatre where she was acting in a pro-German piece by Hauptmann. Grandpa learned that she had been the lover of Goebbels and never went to see her. After the war she was imprisoned for a while and had all of her teeth knocked out and then had to flee to live in Germany. During the German offensive on Stalingrad all Czechs were supposed to turn over their skis to the Nazis. Grandpa burned his skis and threw the bindings in a well. During the war the woman that lived downstairs from Grandpa was an agent for the Gestapo. At the end of the war Grandpa went and confiscated her Luger. She fled and he doesn't know what became of her. But Grandpa was able to trade the Luger with an American for two tubs of lard. During the war he would often get together with a group of friends at a Wine Cellar (Find out where and which one) and they would complain about the Nazis. There even ended up to be a German daredevil that was part of the group. His daredevil speciality was motorcycle tricks inside of a steel globe (and speaking badly about the Nazis). One of Grandpa's upper front teeth sticks out a little. It is actually a cap that was placed there by his dentist before the war. All of Grandpa's dentists in recent years have asked him if they can fix the tooth, but he won't let anyone touch it, because the family dentist was Jewish and was killed in Auschwitz during the war. That's my Grandpa's personal holocaust memorial in his mouth. After the war Grandpa was working for the International Red Cross. He was at the liberation of Theresienstadt with trucks full of supplies provided by Jewish aid organizations in New York. The Russian General in charge of the liberation was General Liaman (sp?) and Grandpa was acting as the interpretor. The Red Cross had been given instructions to distribute the supplies to Jewish survivors. There were also political prisoners, gays and Gypsies at the camp. The General Liaman insisted that everyone get food or no one would eat. Grandpa wired the aid organizations in New York through the American command in Plzen and they agreed. Grandpa was riding a motorcycle on some business for the Red Cross. A young boy had just stolen a motorcycle and came shooting out of a driveway onto the road hitting Grandpa and sending him flying. He landed with all his weight on his right hand. That hand remained crippled. Grandpa insisted that any proceedings against the boy or his family be dropped. While visiting Eger after the war Grandpa had to intervene to stop the mistreatment of Sudeten Germans. Some Sudetens had been locked in a pigsty with the pigs. (details) After the war Grandpa spent 3 years in Paris, then a little time in Cincinnati, then 5 years in Wiesbaden (Equipping the American-owned Opel Car Plant), then 5 years in Zurich (with about 50% of his time working in Italy). When Grandpa was returning to Europe to work in Wiesbaden he and Mary Jane and the boys traveled on the ship 'Liberte'. This ship had been named the 'Europa' prior to WWII and had been given to France as part of war reparations from Germany. The 'Liberte' was refitted and used to replace the sunken ship 'Normandie'. During his time in Zurich he spent one year traveling to Jinjeshpur, India (a 30 minute flight south of Calcutta) to set up a Daimler Benz (Mercedes) truck factory. At the end of the engagement he spent 10 days there training the men on the use of the equipment. During that time he had an apartment (penthouse) on top of the palace of the Maharaji of Jaipur. There was a servant that always sat outside the door. Grandpa would send him for water, but specify that it must be boiling. And he gargled with whiskey. In this way he avoided getting the gastro-intestinal maladies that plagued all of his co-workers. At the Maharaji's palace there was a huge covered pool. Grandpa says that he'd only ever seen one pool that was larger, in Houston, Texas, but that that pool was an outdoor pool. In 1965 Grandpa created DryAPT (APT stands for Automatic Programming of Tools) a computer program to control machines. In 1968 Grandpa went to Los Angeles to help Garrett Research machine a particular part that they had not been able to create to the required precisions. They had been attempting in vain for 3 months. Grandpa arrived at 8 A.M., set up DryAPT and had a part created by 11 A.M. The requirements for the part were so stringent because it was being manufactured for the Lunar Landing. While in Los Angeles Grandpa stayed with his cousin Vlasta. At that time she was managing the personal estates of the son of Emperor Franz Josef's personal surgeon, who had made his money by obtaining an exclusive right to import VWs to the West Coast during the 1950s and 1960s. A little ironic. A Jew becoming incredibly wealthy off of Hitler's Volkswagens. Grandpa stayed in a mansion in the hills. He says the VW millionaire was very eccentric. He toilet had been custom-made, shaped like a lounge chair and manufactured to perfectly fit his derriere. They had used a plaster mold of his toosh to insure the correct dimensions. In 1975 Grandpa was scheduled to retire. He was given an unprecedented extension of 1 year. During that time he was primarily occupied with providing training on the use of DryAPT. In 1976 he took a trip to Boston to do some training. Then he immediately hopped a plane to London, did some training in Birmingham, and then in Manchester. Caught a plane to The Hague. Did some more training. Returned to London. Was scheduled to be in Houston in a few days, but saw that he could catch a flight through Bermuda. He flew to Bermuda, walked around a little, and then caught a flight to Nassau, Bahamas. He spent a day there and then caught a flight to Miami. He spent a day in Miami, took a quick fishing trip, and then caught a flight to Dallas where he spent a day before flying to Houston. All that traveling was in less than one week. During grade school Grandpa's house key fit the lock on his school. If noone was around he would sometimes let himself in early and when the other boys raced to the classroom they would wonder how he had beat them there. Source: Please cite original sources. Compiled by: J. K. Loren