Frank V. Neuzil

Frank Neuzil was born in Domazlice, Czechoslovakia on August 22, 1928 to Vaclav and Louisa Neuzil. He has two brothers, Richard and Milan and one sister, Jindra. Frank graduated from the University of Prague with a degree in Mathematics in 1948. In 1956 Frank and a friend decided to leave the communist controlled country and escape to West Germany. Frank made it, but his friend was shot and captured. He then spent several years in a West German refugee camp. While at the camp he helped build railroad lines and worked as a brick layer. Frank finally made it to Chicago, Illinois in 1958 where he settled into the Southside of the city. He began working at Kneip Meat Company in Forest Park as a butcher. He quickly moved into management and became the General Plant Manager for the company. It was while at Kneip he was sent to Castlebar, Ireland to work with a co-operative meat company. This is where he met Essie Ruane, who would become his wife. Essie and Frank were married in Castlebar on August 20, 1963 after a very short courtship. It must have been love! They were married for 27 years until Essie’s passing in 2000. Frank retired from Quantam/Kneip foods after 50 years in 2000. Frank and Essie loved to travel. They spent many years cruising and visiting countries all over the world and on six continents. They also traveled “home” to the Czech Republic and Ireland to visit family as much as they could. He could speak many languages, some actually really well.  Frank loved to build things, including model cars, computers, wooden ships and model railroad villages. He was also known to build elaborate Lego sets for his grandson, Rian. If it could be built, Frank would build it. Frank became a U.S. Citizen in 1978. He loved to tell the story of how Minnie Minoso, the great left fielder for the Chicago White Sox, became a citizen with him. Frank and Essie had two children, Valerie (Pincon) and Brian. He passed on his love of sports to his son, Brian. He was very happy maintaining baseball stats for Brian’s many youth baseball teams. Although he was not a bowler or golfer himself, he was always happy to provide coaching to Brian through the years as Brian become a school champion in both sports. He passed on his creativity and love of history to his daughter, Valerie, as well as his love of sports cars and driving fast. She has the speeding tickets to show for it. His love of hockey and the Chicago Blackhawks is well known and as soon as his children could walk, he had them at the Stadium to watch games. He loved to tell the story of how he was at the Stadium for one of the 1961 Stanley Cup Final games, even if he was in standing room only. Frank had one grandson, Rian, who he had a very special bond with. Rian and Frank are very similar in that they both loved war and western movies, sports, especially baseball and hockey, and both excelled at school. Frank was especially proud of Rian’s athletic ability as a pitcher and his desire to become a pharmacist. Frank is also survived by his brothers Richard and Milan, sister Jindra as well as many nieces and nephews.

Frank V. Neuzil

August 5, 2015