Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
KWASKY, Albert
KWASKY, Albert. (Manistee, MI, Nov. 2, 1917--Berkeley, California, Feb. 28, 2005). Kwasky remains one of Dubuque's most entertaining historians. His books The Old Lady in Dubuque, The Old Lady in Dubuque's Other Son-The Odd One, and The Old Lady in Dubuque's Town stand as some of the best first-person accounts of life in Dubuque.
He began his writing with the Telegraph Herald in a column entitled "Sport Dust Caught in the Wind." (1) In an article written by Jim Leitner of the Telegraph Herald Kwasky was quoted,
I never wrote any of the books for the money. I was more in recording the efforts of Dubuque who should never be forgotten. This was a town of 35,000 people at the time, and I doubt if you'd ever be able to find a town of that size produce as many of the really prominent national athletes that Dubuque did. (2)
A graduate of COLUMBIA COLLEGE, Kwasky studied electronics at Stanford University and the University of California. In 1947 he began his career in marine engineering. His position as CEO with Pillsbury and Martignoni, founded in San Francisco in 1901, placed him at the head of one of the United State's premier naval architectural consulting firms. Kwasky served the United States Navy as a technical editor of its electronic systems manuals. He was the engineering editor of the Electronics Systems Manual for the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Oriskany and the destroyer U.S.S. Hancock.
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Source:
1. Kwasky, Al, "Dust Caught in the Wind," Telegraph Herald, April 6, 1936, p. 9
2. Leitner, Jim, "Kwasky's History Lessons Praise City's Sports," Telegraph Herald, May 9, 2005