Obituary of Richard S. Malishchak
Richard Salem Malishchak was born April 29, 1946 to parents Paul Malishchak and Isabel Sfayer Malishchak, in Manhattan. He was a resident of Madison for the past 32 years. Rick was an only child, but as the grandchild of immigrants from Ukraine on his father’s side, and Lebanon on his mother’s side, he had a large extended family, and the importance of family and family loyalty was always one of his highest values.
He grew up in a brownstone in Flatbush, Brooklyn where he was educated in parochial grammar and high schools. He was an outstanding student and received a full scholarship to Manhattan College from which he graduated in 1963. He also received a Masters Degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967 and an EdM degree from Columbia University in 1990.
Rick was a true believer in non-violence and during the height of the Vietnam War draft he applied for and successfully received Conscientious Objector status, performing a year of alternative service counseling other potential conscientious objectors.
He worked in the non-profit sector for over 15 years, notably for the American Friends Service Committee and Joint Action in Community Service, both in Manhattan. After some additional training, in 1988 he embarked on a career in the corporate world both performing and managing others doing corporate job training. Major employers were The New York Blood Center, American Express, ADP and Deloitte and Touche. He retired in 2004.
Rick met his wife Margaret Anne Eckler in 1980 and they married in Morristown in 1984, recently celebrating their 40th anniversary. Both Rick and Margaret are enormously proud of their two children, Alexa Anne and Nicholas Paul. Although he worked in Manhattan for most of the time his children were growing up, Rick never failed to attend every school and sporting event in which they participated, always with a camera at the ready.
In 2017, Rick and Margaret established the Paul and Isabel Malishchak Memorial Scholarship (the “Salt of the Earth” fund) honoring his parents’ selfless devotion to the education of their son. For many years Paul and Isabel saved small sums of money for Rick’s college education, entrusting it to a Thom McAn shoe box deep in a closet of their home. Rick never needed the money for college, and the fund has provided scholarship assistance to high school and college students.
Rick and Margaret also spent over 10 years working on his family history project, documenting the stories of Rick’s grandparents and their families before they came to the U.S. and after they arrived as young adults, providing a powerful link between future generations to those who came before them.
Rick was a passionate lifelong sports fan, and he had fond childhood memories of attending NY Rangers games at the old Madison Square Garden with his Uncle Joe, as well as Brooklyn Dodgers games at Ebbets Field. By sheer accident, he was at the game in 1969 when his beloved Mets won the World Series and Rick, with thousands of others, rushed onto the field to capture a small piece of the now-sacred Shea Stadium turf as a memento.
He loved many musical genres but above all the blues, and almost always had a radio on. One of the highlights of his later years was recording a CD of mostly blues songs with his musician son. Rick and Margaret were devoted theater-goers and also enjoyed racquet sports, playing tennis as recently as early 2024.
He was an avid photographer and especially loved to document the natural world in his Madison backyard and nearby Drew University. After retiring, he volunteered for Meals on Wheels as well as participating in various peace-focused activities of the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship, which the family attended for many years. More recently he became interested in Buddhism, reading dharma and practicing meditation, from which he derived a lot of peace.
He was a donor to many organizations including the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the International Rescue Committee and World Central Kitchen. Donations in his memory to any of those organizations are warmly appreciated.
A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.
Arrangements were under the care of Burroughs, Kohr & Dangler Funeral Home, Madison, NJ.