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Health & Fitness

One Life: Changed, Not Ended---Reborn

Former Greendale Police Chief Myron Ratkowski passes away on his 90th birthday. He was a man who lived one incredible life. A life of change....a life not ended, but reborn.

       Myron R. Ratkowski, the former Greendale police chief, had an intriguing personality. He was a warm human being endowed with a bubbling spirit, jovial wit and once hidden talents of an interesting writer.  Myron returned
home or was “reborn” passing away on his 90th birthday, April 30th,
surrounded by his wife and family. 


       Describing himself, tongue in cheek, as “One of our great widely unread
literary treasures,” Myron gave us his storied insights into the life and times
he expressed so well.  Recognizing every
day as another of life’s blessings, Ratkowski’s personal history is as
interesting as his book, a memoir titled “One Life:  Changed, Not Ended.”

            Myron  R. Ratkowski was just the type of person
you’d expect when you learn he once was quoted on “60 Minutes” television
program concerning the opinions expressed by TV personalities on dairying
troubles.  He said, “Never mind killing
the cows, kill the bull.  But then if you
did that, it would be the end of 60 Minutes.”

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            Ratkowski was born of a marriage of
Stephen Ratkowski and Leocadia Stachowiak. 
He claimed he was born at home “because he wanted to be close to his
mother.”   His parents were from the then
Franklin farm lands and after marriage, moved to West Allis where Myron’s dad
was a factory worker.

            Myron had five siblings and guessed
he was born on the wrong side of the railroad tracks as times definitely were
tough during his early years of life.  He
said, “Every new day was haunted and bedeviled by never having enough money.”

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            He recalls capturing pigeons,
breeding domesticated rabbits for meat and jumping into empty box cars with
broom in hand, sweeping the left-behind contents of grain into gunnysacks for
pigeon and rabbit food and even for use in mom and dad’s moonshine, which
reportedly tested out more than once at 180 proof, which means it was 90
percent pure alcohol.  Is it any wonder
then that Myron had no trouble selling it?

            Myron recalls in his book, “While
other boys nine to 12 years of age had paper routes or sold popular magazines
of the time like Liberty, Saturday Evening Post or Boy’s Life, I had a booze
route with regular customers.  I
transported stuff that gurgled. The pint was sold for $1 and a half-pint for 50
cents cash.  No one would suspect me, a
small boy, as I traveled my illicit rounds with special pockets sewn into my
coat so the bottles wouldn’t show or clank against each other.  Joseph may have had a coat of many colors.  Myron’s coat was one of many pockets.”

            He recalls attending church services
with his aunt Minnie, who regularly endured long preachments and lots of
singing because those attending could get free food at the close of services by
the Holy Jumpers and Holy Rollers.  “I
was my family’s first designated to-be-saved sinner, age 12,” Myron recalled
smilingly.

            Myron went to war in 1943 and served
in Europe in the 87th Infantry Division.  He wrote, “As the day wore on, the
machine-gun section of our platoon had moved up on line.  The lieutenant, along with his radio-man was
in a dugout about 50 feet away.  They
appeared to be engaged in a lively and animated conversation.  Impulsively, I swung the carbine rifle and
strap over my shoulder and jumped straight up and out of the safe shelter of my
slit trench.  Those who shared that haven
stayed behind.  As I walked in the
direction of the two conversants, German .88 artillery shells began to rain
in.  I was caught standing up on open
ground halfway between my destination and my point of departure.  Before my eyes, the lieutenant and his
radio-man were blown out of the dugout, instantly killed.  I spun around and headed back to my slit
trench only to find two of my men had been slaughtered from the same barrage,
the same barrage that had left me physically untouched.”

            Following World War II, Ratkowski at
age 22, became the first Milwaukee policeman under the age of 24.  He moved up through the ranks and served many
years as a desk sergeant (where I learned to write, he says) and then continued
his upward progress in the department becoming a captain.

            The next stop was Greendale.

            When Greendale hired him as chief of
police, the Southridge Shopping Mall was about to open and almost immediately
transform the sleepy little village into a bustling commercial center.  Ratkowski, at first, had six Greendale Police
Department employees.  By retirement
time, 13 years later, the department numbered 40 with an annual budget of over
$1 million.

            Believing in equality among
personnel, Ratkowski was the first police chief in Wisconsin to hire a woman as
a police patroller.  She was put on the
street on her own after training.  The
year was 1973.  Chief Ratkowski put a
second woman officer onto patrol duties. 
He said the women were very capable of defusing volatile situations
while provoking less hostility.  His
early beliefs prove true today.

       Myron’s charming companion in marriage, Helen, was a busy wife and mother.  The couple had nine children (Tom, Tim,
Terry, Tracy, Todd, Ted, Trent, Tammy and Trisha) and a six bedroom house which
he built from the ground up, on his days off from work.  He says, “We accepted change all through our
parenting years’, knowing that change means to grow and to become.  Just as our birds (children) grew through the
various stages of infant, toddler, pre-school, school-age, pre-teen, teenager
and adult, there were always new, different and challenging issues at each
stage of development that we faced and resolved.”

            What about these children?  Do they return to the nest?  “Yes, with a vengeance!  Every holiday and on some weekends the
original flock of nine returns, bringing nine spouses or friends and their
offspring:  23 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren.”

            Author Ratkowski has written other
books including, “WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: 
A Police Report,” a law-enforcement perspective on the riots of the 60’s
in Milwaukee, countering lies and legends on the civil-rights and student
demonstrations.  His last book was “The
Samaritan Woman, An Anthology of the Spiritual and the Sensuous.”

            Myron was afflicted with Parkinson’s
disease over the last 20 years of his life with the resultant tremors and nerve
damage.  He was a proud member of the
Wisconsin Parkinson’s Association, writing and speaking with his usual wit and
wisdom on the effects of Parkinson’s disease. 
In talking to him, you learned quickly that his mental alertness and
intelligence were not affected or diminished. 
His was a life at times hard-bitten, adventurous and still
soft-hearted. 

            In his memoirs, Myron concludes,
about his own “personal enlightenment, my peak of knowledge, my kernel of
truth.  After all, my many years of
actual experiences, in the old, and now in the new millennium, should have
taught me something important.  This is
it.  This is my enlightenment.  That if I was God, and I could choose the
perfect life for myself, not any life but the perfect life, I would choose my
life….I was there….and now I am here.”

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