Dr. Robert Trucksa: A Curious Journey
Sandia Heights & High Desert Living
Dr. Robert Trucksa: A Curious Journey
By Marie Cimarusti
2022 words
========================================
This is the story of Dr. Robert Trucksa. Bob, as he likes to be called, started life in Illinois. Since 1983, he has made his home in Sandia Heights. He refers to the ups, the downs, the twists, and the turns that he has encountered on his path as a curious journey.
Bob was born in 1940 on the south side of Chicago. His father worked for a milking machine company. It was hard to make ends meet, but they got help from his maternal grandmother who had a living area in her garage that accommodated Bob’s family. His grandmother came from Poland as a mail order bride. Of her five children, Bob’s mother was the eldest. She had helped raise her younger siblings. Though there were many things the family did without, Bob wouldn’t trade his upbringing because of the closeness they shared.
When Bob was about 15, his father made a big career change. He bought property on the north side of Chicago and began raising dairy goats. Bob was happy with this new direction for his family and it was during this time that he realized how much he loved animals. This love would end up having a huge impact on his future career.
While in high school, a serendipitous thing happened that would also affect his future in a most positive way. It was during the summer before his senior year that his friend suggested taking a class at the University of Chicago. Bob said, “We did it to use the facilities like the swimming pool and tennis courts while the college students were gone.” It was while playing tennis that Bob met Cindy. Though they didn’t live near each other, they did take the same public bus on the first leg of their trip home.
It wasn’t long before Bob and Cindy fell in love. To this day, Bob has a flower he pressed that came from the tree where they shared their first kiss. During senior year, they went on a few dates. Phone calls weren’t an easy option since Bob didn’t have a telephone at home. He didn’t let that stop him from staying in touch. He’d call her from a phone booth. He said, “Fortunately, calls only cost 10 cents at the time.”
When Bob and Cindy graduated, he went to Loyola University in Chicago as a pre-veterinary medicine major and she went to nursing school at Northwestern University in nearby Evanston, IL. Dating increased during that time period until Bob unexpectedly switched colleges. In high school, Bob had been in the ROTC. He said, “The instructor was a West Point graduate and he gave me the idea to apply.” Bob asked a congressman for an appointment, and in his second semester at Loyola, he got that appointment to the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, NY. He graduated in 1963.
During the time Bob spent in New York, he said, “Every day of the week, I got a letter from Cindy. I graduated June 5th, 1963, and we got married on June 29th. We were both Polish and Catholic and we had a big Polish wedding with polkas and all.”
Bob started his military service as a Second Lieutenant in the Artillery branch of the Army. He also served some time as a paratrooper. Another change was coming. Bob said, “After about three years in the Army, I got a letter from the Pentagon to ask if I was willing to go to vet school to join the Army Veterinarian Corps. That was in 1966.” Bob accepted and went to veterinary school at the University of Illinois, graduating in 1970.
Sandia base in Albuquerque, NM, was where Bob was sent on his first assignment. He already knew he liked the city because he had been there to visit the mother of one of his West Point roommates while in college. At the base, Bob’s job was to protect public health. He was tasked with inspecting the officers’ clubs, NCO clubs, and the commissary for sanitation. As it turned out, Bob’s duty to further his education wasn’t over yet. His next step was studying pathology at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda, MD. Bob said, “The army wanted to make a pathologist out of me, but I wasn't sure how to spell the word yet alone learn it.” Wanting to continue with his veterinary training, he said, “I did a residency on my own to become a board certified veterinary ophthalmologist.” Back then, there were only about 25 such doctors in the country. Bob added, “I had learned how to do eye surgery on humans in Albuquerque and while on assignment in Belgium before I worked on animals.”
While in Washington DC, Bob’s medical training made him uniquely qualified to be on an FDA panel of doctors who had the responsibility of approving medications and devising treatments for eye maladies. He counts his nine years of participation on the panel as some of the most fulfilling time he has spent in medicine.
When Bob started college, he couldn’t have foreseen the path of his career and the many opportunities that would be presented to him by the Army. He was able to have the job of his dreams, but it was always his family that brought him the deepest joy. Bob and Cindy were the parents of two children, David and Beth. He said, “My children have made me so proud.”
David lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Jennifer, and their three children: Madison, Jonathan, and Tyler. David attended Arizona State University. His career in the US Air Force included serving as an A-10 fighter pilot. He is also a graduate of the USAF Weapons School. David retired as a Colonel and is currently a pilot for FedEx.
Beth and her husband, Marcus Vance, live in North Carolina near Fort Bragg. They have three daughters: Isabella, Lilah, and Katerina. For undergrad, Beth attended NM State University. She went on to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, where she graduated with honors from the School of Nursing. It was while serving in Iraq as an Army nurse that Beth met Marcus, a medic. Because of Marcus’ rank as a sergeant, he was not allowed to marry an enlisted person. That problem was solved with Beth’s resignation from the Army. She now works as a civilian nurse at Fort Bragg Army Hospital. Marcus recently retired from the Army.
Bob has a close relationship with all his grandchildren. He said, “Sunday is Grandpa Question Day. I talk to each one of my grandchildren, individually, and I can ask them anything I want and they can ask me anything they want.” For example, the kids once asked Bob: What's the dumbest thing that you did when you were a kid? One of Bob’s questions for them was: If you could cheat on an exam and not get caught, would you do it?
In 1979, Bob and Cindy built a house in Sandia Heights while he was still at Walter Reed and they were living in the Washington, D.C., area. They moved into their home here in 1983 when Cindy got ill. She passed away in 1989. Bob turned to his work to help him through the loss of his wife of 26 years.
When Bob retired from the Army in 1983, he opened the Eye Clinic for Animals in Albuquerque. In the beginning, other veterinarians were reluctant to refer patients to him until they understood that his was a specialty practice for animal eyes only. He said, “I wasn't an animal doctor, I was a pediatrician for hairy babies.”
Bob had been a widower for four years when a woman brought her pet into his veterinary practice. She was a widow and her name was Barbara. Bob described her as “wonderful.” They started seeing each other and fell in love. Sadly, Barbara had breast cancer when they met and she told Bob she may only have two years to live. That didn’t make a difference to Bob’s feelings for her and he asked her to marry him.
Barbara was from Louisiana. She hadn’t done much traveling so Bob wanted to take her wherever she wanted to visit. They went on many trips to Europe and on cruises to countries all over the world. He said, “It was so much fun. I’d ask her, ‘Is there any place you'd like to go?’ It was such a thrill taking Barbara to all of those places.”
After eight years of marriage, Barbara passed away in 1999. Bob promised himself to never marry again. He is grateful that that was a promise he couldn’t keep. He said, “My son was a fighter pilot and when he was graduating from Air Force Weapons School at Nellis AFB in Nevada, I flew out to see his ceremony. While I was checking in at the Las Vegas airport to fly home, I met a lovely lady named Valerie. We exchanged email addresses. Many months later, we met again. Three years later, we got married and 18 years later, we still are.”
Lightning rarely strikes twice, yet alone three times but that happened with Bob’s third happy marriage. When Bob met Valerie, she was an operating room supervisor for a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, CA. Logistically, their marriage had some challenges, but love finds a way. Valerie couldn’t find a job in Albuquerque so she’d travel back to work for part of the week. The couple would also alternate living a month at a time in the two locations.
Valerie and Bob did a lot of traveling earlier in their marriage. On a trip to Belgium to visit friends eight years ago, a heart murmur was detected in Bob. They flew back to California where he had robotic surgery. He said, “The next day, I couldn’t move my left arm.” Bob became paralyzed on his left side. For the most part, Bob lives quite independently and is very nimble in his use of a wheelchair. He is very gregarious and enjoys his relationships with neighboring friends as well as friends from West Point and the Army who live all over the world.
For Bob and Valerie, their lifestyle of maintaining two homes has always worked well for them. She makes frequent visits to Albuquerque. Bob said, “We talk every morning and every evening. That's more than many people who live under the same roof.” Valerie retired as an EMT about a month ago. Bob said, “She is like Johnny Appleseed. On our property in Dryer, NV, she started with about five trees and now there are about 100.”
During Bob’s lifetime, he has enjoyed hobbies such as wood carving and oil painting and he has lovely examples of his work in his home. In his youth, he became an Eagle Scout and as a veterinarian, he was a volunteer at the Albuquerque BioPark. One more thing about Bob that many people don’t know. He is a hero.
When Bob was stationed in the village of Tongre-Saint-Martin, Belgium, he was walking near the canals. In the water was a child who was drowning. Whether it was due to his instinct from lifeguarding at a Boy Scout camp in high school or his instinct to do whatever he could to rescue a human being in peril, he jumped into the water, pulled her to shore, and resuscitated her. For his action, he was awarded the Carnegie Medal which is North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism. The official description of the medal from its website: The Carnegie Hero Fund awards the Carnegie Medal to individuals in the United States and Canada who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree saving or attempting to save the lives of others.
In Bob’s own words, he described his life “from the south side of Chicago to Sandia Heights” as a “curious journey.” I think that is a good example of an understatement and Bob’s modesty. He said something else, however, that is his indisputable truth. “I have been so blessed in life.”