Donald F. Chmelka

Donald F. Chmelka lived the American dream, beginning life on a primitive Nebraska farm and retiring 55 years later as a corporate president. He grew up without the luxuries of electricity, telephone or indoor plumbing and began his education in a one-room country school. Like his immigrant great-great-grandfather Matej, Don was determined to find a better life and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nebraska in 1963. Don's professional career began as a reliability engineer in the automotive industry and then with Martin Marietta on America's first anti-ballistic-missile program. He joined the Sundstrand Corporation in 1967, and for the next 25 years he traveled the world working on numerous commercial and military aircraft, missiles, torpedoes and spacecraft. The Space Shuttle program brought him to Los Angeles where he and his wife, Vikki, and their Catholic parish sponsored a Buddhist family from Vietnam. Don was impressed by the efforts of these refugees and began thinking of writing a book concerning the motivations of American immigrants and the technologies that made their journeys possible. A hectic career and continued education—including obtaining an MBA from Pepperdine University—kept him from that task until 1997 when he retired as president of a high-tech manufacturing company in Wichita, Kansas. After 34 years of bouncing around the country while rearing three children, Don and his wife settled in Escondido, California and he began writing Matej's Journey to America. That book, which follows the Chmelka journey through the notable events of history from biblical times to Matej's death in 1902, was published by 1st Books Library late 2002. Don then completed the story of his family's journey through the past 100 years of world history in Matej's Legacy.