Alex Machaskee
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| Alex Machaskee | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Alexander Machaskee March 18, 1937 Warren, Ohio, United States |
| 🏳️ Nationality | American |
| 🏫 Education | Cleveland State University |
| 💼 Occupation | Businessman, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Serbia in Ohio |
| Known for | The Plain Dealer and Serbian Cultural Garden |
| 🌐 Website | serbianculturalgarden |
Alexander Alex Machaskee (Serbian Cyrillic: Александер Алекс Мачески; born March 18, 1937) is a retired publisher, president and CEO of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland's major newspaper and Ohio's largest newspaper; businessman, philanthropist, musician, prominent member of the Serbian community in the United States, founder and patron of the Serbian Cultural Garden in Cleveland and Honorary Consul of the Republic of Serbia in Ohio.[1][2][3]
Biography[edit]
Personal life[edit]
Alex Machaskee's family is partly from Banija, where documents from the church books of his paternal grandmother (Milica) and her family were burned in Glina in 1941 when the Ustaše demolished the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God after the massacre. His father Djuro (George) was born in America and his last name was Maćešić, but due to a school teacher's mistake, his last name was changed to Machaskee. Alex's hometown is Warren, Ohio. As a child, he went every Saturday to the neighboring Youngstown, to the Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church, to spend half a day in a Serbian school learning the Serbian language and about Serbian culture and tradition, and the other half reading the Bible. Thanks to that, but also to his grandmother Milica, who ran mine boarding houses in Pennsylvania, he spoke Serbian fluently and read Cyrillic from an early age. The love for music and Serbian songs also contributed to this, because Alex wanted to know what they were singing about.[3][4]
By his own admission, he is extremely committed to Serbian heritage and religion, even though he belongs to the second generation of Serbs born in America. That is why, as a child, he also recited the "Lord's Prayer" in Serbian, believing that in that way God would hear him better. He has visited Mount Athos eight times, and met with nine different Orthodox patriarchs, including the Ethiopian.[3][4]
He lives with his wife Carol in Beachwood, Ohio.[3][4]
Career[edit]
He started earning money as a six-year-old by selling popcorn, which he prepared by himself, and refreshing drinks on Sundays at baseball games. He later worked in supermarkets and bowling alleys and as a paperboy. Machaskee finished high school in his native Warren and graduated in marketing from Cleveland State University, which in 1995 awarded him honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (Latin: Litterarum humanarum doctor). He received the same recognition from the University of Akron in 1998, Heidelberg College in 2006 and the St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary from Crestwood, New York 2019,[5] of which he was chairman of the Board of Trustees and a member for twenty years. He moved to Cleveland in 1960 and became a prominent businessman.[3][4]
He started working as a journalist in the first grade of high school, by the occurrence of unfortunate circumstances, because due to a knee injury he had to replace sports activities with a part-time job in the local daily The Warren Tribune Chronicle, in which he became a reporter by increasing the number of working hours. He signed his first article at the age of fifteen. He was writing for the Warren Tribune Chronicle a few years after graduating from high school, and joined The Plain Dealer team, first his promotion department, in 1960, after moving to Cleveland. After graduating from college, he moved to the advertising department.[3][4] He remained there until his retirement in June 2006, moving from Director of Labor Relations and Human Resources (1980), Director of Promotion, Assistant to Publisher,[6] a five-year term as Vice President and General Manager (1985) to Publisher and President and Chief Executive Officer, to which he was appointed in 1990. In that capacity, he was responsible for the overall policy, work and direction of the newspaper.[3][4]
He is currently the President of Alex Machaskee & Associates, a company specializing in public relations, strategic planning, international relations, marketing and event promotion.[3][4]
Social work[edit]
Machaskee was the commander of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, the Knights Hospitaller, for Cleveland, and as chairman of the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC)[7] he traveled to Greece, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Georgia, Beirut, Damascus, Jerusalem, Jordan, Ethiopia and Cameroon to oversee the organization's humanitarian activities. In 1999, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, one of the greatest national decorations of America, awarded to him by the National Ethnic Coalition Organization, today's Ellis Island Honors Society. He was also the commissioner of the Serbian Unity Congress.[3][4]
From 2000 to 2001 he chaired the United Way Services campaign, then from 2002 to 2003 he was chairman of its board, and in March 2004 was appointed life president. Since the Yugoslav Cultural Garden in Rockefeller Park in Cleveland became Slovenian in the 1990s, Alex Machaskee founded the Serbian Cultural Garden, inspired by the motherland and its culture, which today hosts the icon of St. Sava and nine busts of Serbian greats.[8] Every July, he organizes a donor Serbian Golf Outing to provide funds for the installation of new sculptures in the Garden.[2][3][4][9][10][11][12][13]
He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation and a lifelong member of the Serb National Federation from Pittsburgh. He is the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Serbia in Ohio, and thus a member of the Cleveland Foreign Consular Corps. He is also a member of the Cleveland Committee on Foreign Relations, a former President of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs, a member of the University Circle, an emeritus member of the Board of the Cleveland Museum of Art, a former Vice President of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, a member of the Board of Cleveland Crime Stoppers and the Cleveland Police Foundation.[3][4]
He is the organizer of numerous evenings for the Serbian diaspora and friends in order to raise funds for various charitable purposes. For example, in order to rebuild Hilandar Monastery, after the fire of 2004, he organized a sponsorship dinner during which the Legende band played. That's how a lot of money was collected. Machaskee personally led the action of raising funds for the new roof of a school in Kosovo, and through the IOCC for soup kitchens and the development of the winery in Dečani.[14] In cooperation with their majesties, Prince Alexander and Princess Katarina Karadjordjevic, he helped orphanages in Serbia. Nikola Borota, Kosta Papić, the late Mitch Zunich and Alex Machaskee also used the funds raised to build the Marcha Monastery in Richfield, Ohio.[3][4][15]
Music[edit]
In Cleveland, with two Serbs and an Italian, he formed the Continental Strings Tamburitza Orchestra, with which he played for forty years from New York to Los Angeles. The brightest moments of its career include a forty-minute performance as an introduction to the Bob Hope show in front of twenty-five thousand people at the Ohio State Fair. Machaskee is a member of the Executive Board and a lifelong honorary commissioner of the Musical Arts Association of the Cleveland Orchestra.[3][4]
Awards and recognitions[edit]
Alex Machaskee is the winner of numerous awards and recognitions, which were presented to him during his career, primarily due to his leadership commitment to the Cleveland community.[3][4]
Among them are:
- Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition Organization
- Whitney M. Young Humanitarian Award by the Urban League of Cleveland
- International Executive of the Year Award by the World Trade Center Cleveland
- Nonprofit Board Executive of the Year Award by Inside Business Magazine
- Golden Door Award by the International Services Center
- Special recognition award for exemplary service in print journalism by the Associated Press
Machaskee was inducted into the Northeast Ohio Business Hall of Fame in 2001, the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame by the Press Club of Cleveland in 2006 and the Cleveland International Hall of Fame[3] and the James J. Nance College of Business of Cleveland State University Hall of Fame[16] in 2010.[4]
See more[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Choose Success: Alex Machaskee", Radio Television of Serbia, April 30, 2014. Retrieved: September 16,, 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Alex Machaskee and the Directorate for the Diaspora Erect a Bust of Mileva Marić in Ohio", Radio Television of Serbia, May 22, 2016 / Republished article, Serbian Mirror, Chicago, June 2016. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 Biography of Alex Machaskee on the Website of the Cleveland International Hall of Fame, Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 "The Honorable Alex Machaskee: 'Don't Be Afraid to Tell People You are a Serbian and a Serbian Orthodox Christian'", The American Srbobran, November 18, 2020.
- ↑ "Title of Honor to Alex Machaskee", Radio Television of Serbia, May 31, 2019. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ "Machaskee Promoted as Assistant to Publisher", The American Srbobran, January 12, 1972. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ "Machaskee Steps Down as IOCC Board Chairman", The American Srbobran, March 2, 2011. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ "Serbian Flowers in Cleveland Garden", Radio Television of Serbia, September 3, 2015 / Republished article, Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Serbia, September 4, 2015. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ "A Bust of Mileva Marić Erected in Cleveland", Radio Television of Serbia, June 21, 2016 / Republished article, Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Serbia, June 21, 2016 / Republished article, Serbian Mirror, Chicago, July 2016. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ "Ivan Kalauzović on the Cleveland Bust of Mileva Marić for Radio Belgrade 1", SoundCloud, June 23, 2016. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ "A New Bust in the Serbian Garden in Cleveland", Radio Television of Serbia, August 17, 2017. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ "Milutin Milanković Immortalized in Cleveland", Radio Television of Serbia, September 11, 2017 / Republished article, Serbian Mirror, Chicago, September 2017. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ "Bust of Nadežda Petrović in Cleveland", Radio Television of Serbia, August 19, 2018 / Republished article, Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Serbia, August 20, 2018. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ "Serbian Wine from Albanian Vineyards", Politika, October 14, 2007. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ "The Marcha Monastery in Ohio Marked the Day of Reconciliation",Naši u svetu, November 13, 2018. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- ↑ "Alumni Hall of Fame", Cleveland State University. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
External links[edit]
- Alex Macheskee in "Choose Success" TV show, Radio Television of Serbia, YouTube, 2014. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- Alex Macheskee in "Serbia & World" show, STV Info Media, YouTube, 2016. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
- Interview with Alex Machaskee, Serb National Federation, YouTube, 2020. YouTube, 2020. Retrieved: September 16, 2021.
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