West Haven, Conn. —
He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 3, 1924, to the late Maria (Wozniak) and Andrew Hreczuch. Adam was a proud 1942 graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School.
He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant at 19, after having completed Officers Training at Yale University.
As an Officer, he proudly served in the Eastern Asian Air Offensive, assigned to the 567th Air Material Squadron, 358th Air Service Group, 313th Bomb Wing on Tinian where the atomic bombs were camouflaged, prior to the bombing of Hiroshima.
Adam served with distinction and received the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Cross, and the Meritorious Service Unit Plaque. He was a Commissioned Captain at the time of his Honorable Discharge.
Following WW II, Adam earned his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he graduated in two and a half years, and where he met and married Susan Harris.
After graduating, he began a distinguished career in New York, working for a number of multi-national firms in Zurich, Switzerland and Paris, France, eventually moving to Europe with his wife and four children.
Adam was a true Franco-phile, always wearing his fleur de lis tie and a Flag of France in his left jacket lapel. He delighted in returning to Paris each summer, “I love to sit in the cafés, drink a ‘Perrier Menthe’ and watch people.”
Adam loved the impossible. He did the NY Times crosswords in ink and thought nothing of it.
Adam was predeceased by his wife, Susan Harland, and his two brothers Taras and Walter Hreczuch. What Adam loved most were his four children (Jane Harland of Claremont, N.H.; Barbara Harland of Stamford, Conn.; Joan Harland of West Haven; and Roger Harland of St. John, U.S.V.I.) and his beloved grandsons (Nicholas Harland of Seattle, Wash.; Cole and Gray Stangler of Greenwich, Conn.).
Private interment with military honors will be at Lakewood Cemetery in New Canaan at a later date. A portion of his ashes will be returned to his beloved Paris.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that an act of kindness be performed in Adam’s memory during the upcoming holiday season.