Albert R. Schreck, ex-MFH, Los Altos Hounds (CA), County Limerick foxhounds (IRE) Like many in the hunting world, I was saddened to learn of the passing of Al Schreck, MFH. Al was a great influence during my years as a huntsman, not only in America but also in Ireland.
Al had been a Joint-Master of the Los Altos Hounds since 1969 and had visited Ireland every year from the early 1960s to hunt with the County Limerick foxhounds and adjacent packs. I first met Al in 1970 when I went to Ireland to hunt the County Limerick foxhounds for Lord Daresbury, MFH. I immediately became friends with him and his lovely wife, Jo. Sadly, Jo predeceased him.
In 1990, although still a Joint-Master at Los Altos, he was asked to join the Mastership of the County Limerick Foxhounds. He accepted willingly, saying that it would be wonderful to put something back into the Hunt for all the pleasure he and Jo had enjoyed over the years hunting in Limerick. This proved to be a very popular move with the members and subscribers of the hunt.
Al decided against wearing a scarlet coat which immediately earned him respect from the locals. He loved nothing more than riding at the back of the field chatting to everybody when going on with hounds to draw. He was perfectly at ease whether talking to a farmer in the middle of a bog in Ireland or a member of Congress at his beloved Bohemian Grove campgrounds in America—an ability which is a great asset to any Master of Foxhounds.
He was proud of his position in Limerick and popular with the people, but all good things come to an end. Lord Daresbury died at age eighty-seven in 1990, and at the close of the 1997 season there was change in the County Limerick. Al and I were both out of our positions. Al was truly hurt, but he was more worried about me and my future. He immediately started to search for an opportunity for me in America, finding that position at the Rolling Rock Hunt in Pennsylvania. Whilst I was there, Al was always the senior judge at the annual Puppy Show, presenting each puppy walker with a silver spoon as he had done in Limerick.
He got tremendous pleasure out of my very first Puppy Show with Captain Wallace, whom I had whipped-in to at the Heythrop, as his co-judge. Afterwards, he told everybody with great glee how he put the Captain right on several occasions whilst judging. Fortunately the Captain did not hear him.
The Masters of the Middleburg Hunt (VA) kindly hosted a retirement party for me at the end of my hunting career. Al, though quite frail at the time, made the extreme effort to travel from California to attend. That meant so much to me.
Al loved hunting, loved his wife and family, and was generous to a fault. When questioned about his generosity he would say that he did not want to be the wealthiest man in the graveyard!
The closing of the Los Altos Hounds was a sad loss to him, but he continued to ride out regularly from his home in Portola Valley, California, a town of which he was a founding father in 1964. He helped to write the incorporating documents in San Mateo County that established in perpetuity the guiding principles and ethos of the town to forever maintain and preserve its rural character.
I will miss him, as I am sure many people will, both in and out of the foxhunting world.
Posted February 19, 2020