Edmonds artist creates portraits of Poland’s fallen heroes

Michael Reagan, the Edmonds artist who has created thousands of portraits through his Fallen Heroes Project, will take a long walk Sunday. He walks every morning, but this time his thoughts will be far from home. In his heart, Reagan will be with 66 families in Poland.

For months, he has been drawing the likenesses of 66 Polish Special Forces soldiers, 22 killed in Iraq and 44 who died in Afghanistan. At 4 p.m. Sunday in Warsaw — just when Reagan plans to take his morning walk — the framed original portraits will be given to the Polish soldiers’ families.

In August, Reagan received email from Karol Sobczyk, the assistant military attache at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, D.C. The email said Sunday’s portrait presentation will be part of a new “national remembrance day of fallen veterans” being observed in Poland on Monday for the first time. Also Monday, framed prints of the 66 portraits will be placed on permanent display in a Polish veterans museum.

The date was chosen in recognition of Dec. 21, 2011, when five Polish soldiers died in a roadside blast in Afghanistan. It was the deadliest single attack for the Polish military there.

Reagan said the 66 Polish soldiers “died serving with American Special Forces.”

“The families are going to walk into a huge room and see 66 easels with my lifelike portraits, all framed,” Reagan said.

A Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, the 68-year-old Reagan spent much of his career at the University of Washington, where he designed one of the Husky logos. But since 2003, he has devoted his time and talent to the Fallen Heroes Project. He created the nonprofit to provide free, hand-drawn portraits to families who have lost loved ones in war since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

To date, he has drawn more than 4,400 portraits. He uses as guides photographs sent to him by families. His most recent drawing is of Airman First Class Kcey Ruiz, one of six Americans killed Oct. 2 in a plane crash in Afghanistan.

While most of his subjects served in U.S. armed forces, Reagan has given his portraits to hundreds of families in Great Britain and Canada. He has contacted officials in Germany, Australia, Spain and Poland about honoring their military members. Reagan said those countries didn’t express interest in his work — not until this year.

Reagan said the project for Poland came about because of someone he met at a talk he gave in the Woodinville area. At the talk, Robert Michalak, a Veterans of Foreign Wars member from Redmond, asked Reagan if he had considered drawing Poland’s fallen heroes. “Robert’s sister is in the Polish army,” Reagan said.

With that entree, Reagan was able to establish contact with Polish officials. The artist had two requests: that the photos be provided by families, not the government, and that his original drawings be presented to loved ones in a dignified way.

“I heard from Karol at the embassy in D.C.,” Reagan said. “It took me a bunch of months. Karol kept saying he’d get me photographs. I waited six months for photos.”

The process was expensive. Reagan’s foundation accepts donations and has been helped by a number of sponsors. All 132 pictures — the families’ originals and prints for the museum — are matted, framed and protected by non-glare Plexiglas. The last ones were shipped to Warsaw a month ago. Reagan said he was helped greatly by “my friends at Hobby Lobby” in Lynnwood.

Reagan decided not to go to Poland, but Michalak and another friend will represent him there. “I don’t travel very well,” said Reagan, although in March he made a special trip to Washington, D.C. There, he was given a Citizen Honors medal by the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation.

Reagan has another reason for not making the 5,200-mile journey to Warsaw.

“I want the attention to be on those 66 soldiers who died,” he said. “A lot of families will learn where Edmonds is, and maybe understand something about American veterans. That’s what I am.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

How to help

Michael Reagan has drawn more than 4,400 portraits, which he provides free to families, through his Fallen Heroes Project. Learn more or donate to the project at: www.fallenheroesproject.org/