Rainer Lukoschek
Errors are all mine and mine alone. Recollections are hazy, but I’ll try to be as clear as possible.
I wonder whether obituaries will exist when I pass. I’ll have to let the merry whims of fate decide that one.
Hi there. If you are reading this, I am no longer alive and have croaked. Rainer passed on April 1, 2025 due to complications from recently diagnosed leukemia.
“There will be no speculation about whether I have gone on to a better place. I will not write that I “passed away surrounded by family” because that might give readers the idea that my family feared I was about to leap off my deathbed and make a break for the door.”
Excerpt From
Yours Truly
James R. Hagerty
https://books.apple.com/us/book/yours-truly/id1620441937
This material may be protected by copyright.
As my father said towards the end of his life, never leave behind a “baustelle”. I have tried with my limited German to translate this into something understandable in English. The best way I can translate this “is to never leave behind a project” for others to clean up after you die. Take care of everything before you die, and leave the living alone to, hopefully, mourn your passing.
My story begins in La Paz, Bolivia where I was born on January 23, 1962. My dad, Ronald M Lukoschek of Berlin, Germany, had accepted a job with the Bolivian National Brewery after he graduated from beer college in Munich. As part of the requirement of the job offer, he had to be married – thus enter my mother – Agnes Ortmanns Lukoschek from Würselen, Germany. They married in Würselen in 1959 and packed their meager belongings and headed to Bolivia.
We lived in Huari and La Paz while in Bolivia. In 1960, Mom gave birth to twins – Petra Maria Agnes Lukoschek and Jürgen José Ronald Lukoschek on November 7, 1960. Sadly both passed away – Petra on the 8th and Jürgen on the 12th of November.
What I don’t know is whether I and my brother would be around if the twins had lived. This falls under the heading of questions I wish I would have asked when my parents when they were alive.
So who am I? I enjoy learning and was never able to stay in one lane. I enjoy everything from the dirt roads to the freeways of life. I was never a fan of city streets – too many of them and too many people on them. If the road was more desolate, the better I enjoyed it.
If the road got too crowded, I found the nearest exit and took it, regardless of where it went. Sometimes, I enjoyed the detour and other times, I didn’t like it as much. The joy was finding another road and taking it and seeing where it would lead.
We are all the sum of our experiences and I had my fair share. I had the opportunity to live on six of the seven continents; learning new cultures, foods, and retaining some the various languages.
While I am not mechanically gifted – my wife will tell you I failed miserably in this department – I tried learning as much as I could and became a depository of unusual and weird information. Ironic since I spent 31 years in construction management. As told to me on several occasions, I was an oxygen thief depriving the superintendents of their precious air.
I loved cooking and wasn’t too good at baking. I loved the freedom and liberty in cooking and not the precision required in baking.
My two loves of music and literature were intertwined and as noted before – I didn’t stay in any particular lane. I might finish a science book and follow it with a Serge caper from Tim Dorsey or listen to Led Zeppelin and follow it with BossHoss.
To me, the adventure of trying something new was made life enjoyable.
So what are my touchstones? In 1841, Charles Mackay issued “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”. I came across a copy of the book in a bookstore in Herndon, VA and devoured the book. It has formed a foundation of my core belief that humans can create wonderful things or thoughts, but at the same time create the most stupid herd mentality. We, as a species, continue to repeat the failures of yesteryear and wonder why the outcome ended being the same.
Rainer Lukoschek is survived by his loving wife Jill Prettyman-Lukoschek and son Max Christopher Lukoschek, his brother Knut Lukoschek, sister in law Caridad Yoanka López Hernández, their daughter Flavia de la Caridad Gómez López, his mother in law Evelyn Walter Savage Prettyman as well as his brother in law Elijah Barrett Prettyman III and his wife Terri Miller Prettyman and too many more extended family members to name.
I had a reminder on my phone that today was Rainer’s birthday and I was going to reach out to him to give well wishes. We last connected on LinkedIn a few years ago and that’s where I was going to start again. Rainer was a mentor to me and in some ways a second dad – my professional career dad. We connected on a project in Utah where I was wrapping up school and he was leading a team of engineers. I was looking for a final summer internship and after obtaining the position he took me under his wing. He told me a lot of crazy stories about music, things that happened on past projects, and how to earn the respect of those around you. He was a little irreverent at times, which was part of the fun. I went back to school to finish my Masters but stayed connected and visited the site every few weeks. He encouraged this, knowing that if I stayed connected with the team on the project, that I would have a stronger chance of rejoining the team to wrap up the project. We had a lot of talks walking around the site. One of the lessons I share all the time was his lesson on perception. As a young upstart I arrived to the site on time at 7a, but it took 5 minutes to walk to the trailers. We had a staff meeting every day at 7:15a so young me thought that was my buffer in case I woke up late or there was traffic. He spoke to me about concerns from his boss that I wasn’t on time and told me that it doesn’t matter if we’re actually doing things right or on time. If someone perceives you’re late, you’re late. I wasn’t late again. I’ve kept that lesson and passed it on to those I mentor now. I will miss Rainer. I will always remember his kindness, his love for life, and desire to try new things. He was a good man and humble. He loved his wife, his son, and his dogs. I still have magnets that he brought back from a trip to his favorite music store on my fridge at home. My memories of him will always stay with me every time I see those magnets, share his life lessons, or pass on his crazy stories. Best wishes and love to the Lukoschek family!