Born: 1894 in Czechoslovakia
Died: September 1972
Married:
Children:
W. Mladek Willy was a New York hotelier. He bought Prospect Point Camp a few years after Adolph Lewisohn's death in 1938 and operated it as Sekon in the Pines until 1950, when he sold it to the Blums, who ran it as a Summer girls camp. He then bought Fish Rock Camp, operating it as Sekon Lodge.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 10, 1953
Top Hotel Man Runs Lodge On Upper Lake
By R.W.T.
One of the top men in hotel business will be in charge of a guest lodge which is opening June 29th on Upper Saranac Lake.
He is W. Mladek Willy, who for many years was catering manager at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the Hotel Pierre in New York City, and who is presently on leave of absence for the summer from the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
He will be operating Sekon Lodge on Fish Rock, which is the former Isaac Seligman camp, in partnership with Ralph Dellavie, whose father used to manage the Adolph Lewisohn camp on the Upper lake.
We called on Mr. Willy yesterday and found him working with carpenters who were reflooring and enlarging the dining room.
He is a short, stocky man with white hair and friendly dark brown eyes. We soon discovered that although he is 58 he has the physical vigor of men many years his junior. We were sitting in deck chairs near the lake shore when the phone rang in the main building uphill, some 60 or 70 yards away.
Mr. Willy ran all the way up the slope, reaching the phone by the third ring. And he ran back down again, and was not breathing hard when he again sat down.
He pulled his blue ski cap down over his eyes a bit and said, "Alright, where do we begin?"
I suggested we start with his birth. He is the son of a blacksmith and was born on the outskirts of the small village of Bernschlag in Czechoslovakia, near the border of Austria. In 1894, the year of his birth, what is now known as Czechoslovakia was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
"Last March," he said, "I went close to the border, which is closed by the Communists, and looked across towards my village. In 1945 I had fulfilled my ambition to build a new Catholic church there. But I no longer can safely return."
Incidentally the year of Mr. Willy's birth, Isaac Seligman started building the great camp which Mr. Willy and Mrs. Dellavie are soon to open as Sekon Lodge. Sekon is the Iriquois word for "Welcome", Mr. Willy says.
When Mr. Willy was fifteen he started taking courses at a hotel school in Vienna and three years later, on graduation, received the silver prize as the second top man amongst 2000 students. After a short stint at the Hungarian Crown Hotel in Vienna, he went to the Ritz Hotel in London and in 1914 was called back for army service.
However he was arrested by English authorities and imprisoned as an enemy alien, only to be released two weeks later and set on his way to the United States.
Stanwood S. Menken, American lawyer, had met and liked young Mr. Willy at the Ritz and, hearing of his trouble somehow arranged his release and helped him get passage for the United States.
Mr. Willy started out at the Ritz Carleton in New York City and was there for 18 years, serving as catering manager during the latter hall of the period. "Oh, what wonderful coming out parties," he exclaimed.
He joined the famous Oscar of the Waldorf on January 1, 1932 and was catering manager there until December 31, 1945 and for the next seven years had the same job with the Hotel Pierre.
"Every year after World War I, I used to visit my parents in Czechoslovakia," Mr. Willy said, "and in 1931 they celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary. They invited 150 guests to the party and 1500 showed up. We drained the lake so we could get enough power for electricity and we showed movies and electric lights in that village for the first time."
"How did you happen to come up to the Adirondacks?" we asked him.
"I believe in the future of the Adirondacks," he quickly replied.
He said he had travelled through Europe, Australia, and Japan, as well as around the United States, "and this tops many places." He waved out towards the white-capped lake and the mountains beyond.
Up on the hill behind us, and along the lake on either side were the twenty buildings of Sekon lodge, "and twenty buildings of Calumet Camp next door are included," Mr. Willy said and added, "We will be able to care for 100 guests."
There are spacious lawns, two tennis courts, a couple of piers jutting out into the water, one of them resting on a large rock rising out of the lake. A speed boat, outboards, canoes, Adirondack Guide boats, and small sailboats will be available for guests.
Among the many log buildings, there is a 12 foot square cabin, just big enough inside for a bed, chair and bureau, and a Honeymoon Cottage with a glorious view.
Mr. Willy readily admits that he has a lot of work to do before opening time. "All local people are helping me" he says, "and I do all my buying locally."
We left him at the big main house, with its wide porches and wide eaves. The phone was ringing again, and he dashed off answer it.
New York Times, September 17, 1972
WILLIAM M. WILLY
Special to The New York Times
ROSENDALE, N. Y., Sept. 16 —William Mladek Willy, banquet manager at the Ritz-Carlton, Waldorf-Astoria and Pierre Hotels in New York for more than 50 years, died here Thursday at the age of 78. He lived at Stokes Point.
