Albert Raymond Nesuda (10/30/1926 - 5/18/2026), 99 years old, passed away on May 18, 2026 in Alexandria, Virginia. Albert grew up among the Czech-American communities in Dallas and Ennis, Texas with his two older siblings, Ella and Milton. He realized in retrospect that when he was three years old, Ella was twice his age and Milton four times his age. He also thought in his youth that he and his siblings would never live to see the dawn of the twenty-first century!

Albert attended Crozier Tech High School, often getting there via Dallas’ then-extensive streetcar system. During World War Two, after going through boot camp in San Diego, he served in the Navy as a hospital corpsman in Chelsea, Massachusetts. After the war, he studied briefly at Southern Methodist University — where his son, though born and raised in Virginia, currently teaches today. Albert ended up hitchhiking from Dallas to Boston University, where he received a bachelor’s in economics in 1950.

As a young man, Albert honed his gymnastics skills in the fraternal Czech organization known as the Sokol, which aspired to develop a sound mind in a sound body (V zdravém těle zdravý duch!). An avid motorcyclist, he road-tripped around much of the United States and into Mexico. He would often recount the tale of him and his brother Milton running out of gas just as they crested the last hill to Monterrey, coasting the remaining distance into town; then again, he was prone to exaggeration at times.

Albert started out with a variety of odd jobs, ranging from insurance to roofing, but before long he began a thirty-plus-year career with the Department of Agriculture. It was in Agriculture’s Dallas office that he met Normagene Fairchild, who went by the nickname of Penny; the two married in October 1959, and they transferred to the Washington, D.C. area in the early sixties. During his working years, he witnessed many of the protests taking place along the Washington Mall, and he even attended Martin Luther King’s renowned “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

He and Penny eventually found a home in the mid-century-modern enclave of Hollin Hills, where they raised their son Michael. Albert stayed quite active during this time in his life: riding on his Honda motorcycle, going on fishing trips (and at least one sailing trip with his brother Milton to the Bahamas), taking long morning runs, and commuting into the District along the Mount Vernon bike path — not to mention taking Michael on a couple of centuries (100-mile bike rides) and cycling tours of the C&O Canal and Blue Ridge Parkway.

After Penny passed away in 1993, Albert connected with Rose Menarčik, an old high-school acquaintance who was living in Ennis; they had a vibrant long-distance relationship for about a year. Afterwards, as a recent retiree from Agriculture, he attended a social group for widows and widowers called Post-Cana. Here he met Chizuru, better known as Fujii, also known as Pat; the two of them began a thirty-plus-year relationship that lasted the rest of his days. He embarked upon a new era of family life, in effect becoming a grandfather, or Jiji-chan, to Fujii’s grandchildren Colin and Olivia. He shared many exciting adventures with Fujii: boulder scrambling on the Billy Goat Trail at Great Falls, cavorting with sloths and howler monkeys in Costa Rica, plunging into a cenote in Mexico (actually, I think Fujii sat that one out) — and at age 92, climbing the 250 steps up to Gifu Castle during a ceremonious return to Fujii’s hometown.

Albert was quite introverted, never casting a wide social net. Yet those who got to know him were impressed by his quiet attentiveness and thoughtful responses. His occasional, selective remarks would often capture the attention of a more talkative group of people. He read voraciously, delving into the non-fiction works of authors such as James Michener, and developing a layman’s interest in physics (even in his later years, for instance, expressing excitement about the James Webb Space Telescope). From the Vietnam era onward, politics became a true passion for him, and he would often get into spirited debates with his opposite-leaning siblings Milton and Ella: disagreeing, yet staying on good terms in the sort of bipartisan rapport so rarely seen today.

Albert took his role as a father seriously, standing ready to offer advice, criticism, and support. He was a true companion to his family, both immediate and extended; and his manner and example touched the lives of many others as well. Thinker, listener, observer, athlete, worker, manager, father, and loving partner — all of these are fitting descriptions of this fortunate and long-lived man.

Albert is survived by:

His son Michael Nesuda;

His niece and nephew-in-law Mary Ann and William White, and their children David and Lee Ann White; David’s wife Suzanne Grona White, and their children Carol Anne White and Hayden Elizabeth White; his cousins Carol Mraz, Roger Nesuda, Dorothy Kudrna, David Nesuda, and Patricia Nesuda; Carol’s husband Ron Mraz, their son Jason, and Jason’s family; Roger’s wife Laura, their daughter Lisa, and Lisa’s family;

His long-term companion “Pat” Chizuru Fujii Quan and her family, including daughters Nora Quan Petitt and Margaret Quan-Lucey, grandchildren Colin and Olivia Petitt, sons-in-law Glen Petitt and Tom Lucey, and granddaughter-in-law Mary Petitt;

His late wife Normagene’s family — her daughters Lisa Karen Simmons and Scheryle Jann Simmons; Lisa’s son Harrison Epstein; Scheryle’s daughters Jamaica Rose Itule Simmons, Ramona Itule-Patigian, Teddy Magaña Patigian, and Vaiya Simmons, and their children; Normagene’s brother and sister-in-law Richard Fairchild and Dee Barnes Fairchild; their children Sean Fairchild and Candy Fairchild McClellan; and Sean’s children Lauren and Grant and Candy’s son Mathew.

Albert was preceded in death by his wife Normagene (“Penny”) Elestia Fairchild Simmons Nesuda; his brother and sister-in-law Milton and Marian Nesuda; his sister Ella Nesuda; and his parents William Albert Nesuda and Mary Petr Nesuda.