Since at least 1941, Hungarian students have been attending the University of Illinois. They have included chemical engineers, chemists, dentists, fencers, librarians, mechanical engineers, Olympic athletes, poets, political scientists, swimmers, university professors, urban planners, veterinarians, and writers too.

Read on to learn more about early Hungarian Illini!

Early Illinois – Hungary Connections

In 1922, Y.M.C.A. Secretary Donald Alexander Lowrie (Record Series 15/35/53) had visited Hungary, during his work for the International Y.M.C.A. In November 1956, the Illinois Student Senate endorsed student participation in a nationwide student petititon to Prime Minister Nehru of India to intervene and mediate on behalf of Hungarian student protesters in the 1956 Hungarian student protests. The following day, a Daily Illini wrote in support too, while the Y.M.C.A.-Y.W.C.A. Little United Nations student group discussed the issue too. In February 1957, the Hungarian Freedom Tour, the Hungarian fencing and gymnastics troupe led by Hungarian Olympic fencer György Piller, visited town during a national tour (and the 900-attendee event received a great review from the Daily Illini too.) From at least 1963 through 1980, Recreation and Leisure Studies Professor Allen V. H. Sapora (Record Series 16/5/22) researched outdoor recreation in locations including Debrecen, Kecskemet, and Szombathely. In 1966, the Hungarian National Ballet came to campus. From at least 1967 through 1997, Music Professor Alexander L. Ringer (Record Series 12/5/43) promoted the Kodály method in music education as well as founding the International Kodály Society too. 1968 Hungary is documented in at least once scrapbook in the Geology Department Scrapbooks (Record Series 15/11/11). From 1972 through 1980, Cello and Chamber Music Professor Gabriel Magyar (Record Series 12/5/23) taught at Illinois, following a sixteen-year career with the Hungarian String Quartet.

Early Hungarian Illini

The first Hungarian students may have arrived as early as the 1940s. And so, one of the first Hungarian Illini might have been Hungarian Olympic water polo player Mr. Sándor “Alexander” Tarics, of Budapest, who came to Illinois to study urban planning in 1941, The Daily Illini reported in an interview.

Not long later, the first Hungarian Illini graduate might have been Mr. Tom Baron, (B.S. Chemical Engineering, 1943; PhD Chemical Engineering, 1948), also of Budapest, who was student athlete too. In fact, Mr. Baron was a national junior singles ping pong champion in Hungary, as reported in The Daily Illini. He was active in student life too. During his junior year, Mr. Baron joined the multicultural student organization Cosmopolitan Club, (Record Series 41/64/8). That same school year, at the First Congressional Church, he gave a talk “Our Lives at a Price” (May 1941) for high school students. Later that semester, Mr. Baron was part of a three-member panel discussion, with a Bulgarian student and a Turkish student, of contemporary Balkan politics, The Daily Illini reported. During the December of his senior year, Mr. Baron was interviewed with other students to describe winter holiday celebrations abroad, The Daily Illini reported.

After graduation, Mr. Baron he served in the U.S. Army (1944-46) and he later completed a PhD at Illinois too. [1] After graduation, Dr. Baron remained at Illinois as an instructor (1948-49) and assistant professor (1949-51), before joining the Shell Development Company as a chemical engineer where he later became president in 1967. Over his distinguished career contributing to chemical engineering theory and practice in fluid dynamics, Dr. Baron received many professional awards, including the University of Illinois College of Engineering Alumni Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Engineering (1967).

Mr. Levente DeWarga, (B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 1951), of Budapest, was active in Cosmopolitan Club too. In fact, Mr. DeWarga was involved in the Club soccer team. He started as a halfback for 1949-1950 team, and he became a co-captain for the 1950-1951 team.

Mr. Leslie László, (B.A. Political Science, 1952), of Koszeg, was initiated into the international service honorary Phi Beta Kappa in 1952.

Later Hungarian students were World War II refugees fleeing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. By this time, the University community received many displaced persons, including Czech, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Slovak, and Ukrainian students, to name a few. Multiple organizations voluntarily provided for the students. Local fraternities and sororities provided housing, the University and the student organization Campus Chest provided scholarships, and off campus organizations like the Y.M.C.A. provided support for cultural programs for students too. By October 1957, as many as thirteen Hungarian students had enrolled in the University.

By the time of the Hungarian Revolution, local University community members, on and off campus, coordinated a Hungarian refugee settlement program, led by Rev. Fr. Edmund O’Rourke, and a clothing drive “A Light for Hungary” was organized too, The Daily Illini reported. For academic year 1956-57, the University received an Institute of International Education grant to conduct a special intensive English course for fifteen Hungarian students. [2] Even the DI column the Campus Scout gave a Scout Fall Semester Award to local Hungarian displaced persons in January 1957.

Mr. Erwin Molnar, (1956-58), of Gyeor (possibly Győr), began his studies at Technical College of Architectural Industry in Budapest, and he was the first Hungarian refugee to arrive in town, The Daily Illini reported. Although he was a student and prospective architectural engineer, it was November 11 1956 when Mr. Molnar participated in the Hungarian Revolution and he would be relocated to Champaign-Urbana within weeks and he would be separated from his family. During a DI interview, Molnar told the student reporter that he and ten other students had mimeographed bulletins for the uprising and they helped bring food to fellow protesters in Budapest. After a brief jailing by Soviet authorities, Mr. Molnar and four friends escaped Hungary through the Austrian border. By the time he arrived on campus, Mr. Molnar did not know how his parents were faring.

Mr. Molnar was a frequent figure in Daily Illini newspapers. A December 5, 1956 issue featured multiple photos of Mr. Molnar socializing on campus. On December 7, his appreciative reaction to the clothing drive was reported too.

One week after Mr. Molnar’s arrival on campus, thirteen more Hungarian refugees arrived, including eleven adults and two children, with as many as forty more refugees due to arrive on the following Tuesday, The DI reported. Mr. Molnar continued to be sought as an authority and resource on Hungarian refugee experiences. The following May, local Hungarian refugees organized a thank you dinner for local English instructors and Reverend O’Rourke.

By December 12, Mr. Molnar was already learning English, American English expressions, and learning the Jitterbug at an Alpha Rho Chi (Record Series 41/71/11) social dance. Just two years later, tragically, at 5:45 a.m. on December 25, while riding with two fellow Hungarian refugees in a car westbound from Danville, the driver had been blinded by the headlights of another car, resulting in crashing the vehicle into a bridge, The DI reported. Mr. Molnar and one other occupant had died, while the driver was treated for shock and exposure to the cold.

In 1957, Mr. Bela Sandor, (B.S. Engineering Mechanics, 1961; PhD Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 1968), came to Illinois where he would distinguish himself as a swimmer and a scholar. As early as April 1957, Mr. Sandor was traveling on an all-expenses-paid trip to St. Louis, as the result of a letter he wrote. Previously, after reading I Dare You! by the St. Louis author William Danforth, and Mr. Sandor’s letter of appreciation to the author was received by his son who invited Mr. Sandor to visit him, The DI reported. During freshman year, Mr. Sandor was eligible for the freshmen men’s scholastic honorary Phi Eta Sigma. He was awarded a Fred S. Bailey scholarship too. The following November, he swam 117 yards underwater in 1 minute and 54 seconds, as a breathless crowd watched. Following an impressive performance at the 1959 Homecoming shows and swimming an impressive four lengths underwater, for the 1959 Dad’s Day weekend, among other events, Mr. Sandor performed an underwater swimming exhibition. In 1960, for the 25th annual presentation of the Dolphin fraternity, among other performances, Mr. Sandor performed an underwater escape. Mr. Sandor’s underwater swimming abilities were even once described by a DI writer’s acclaim that Mr. Sandor was the “holder of the unofficial world’s underwater swimming record“. Just one month later, in a gymnastics competition, at the final event of the evening, Mr. Sandor defeated another student by an impressive 18 yards in handwalking competition. After graduation, Mr. Sandor worked for the Bell Telephone Lab in New Jersey and he completed a Master’s degree at New York University, before returning to complete his PhD at Illinois. At the time of his second graduation, Dr. Sandor joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. [3]

Mr. Nicholas Szluha, (B.V.M., 1962), of Boroch, was both a veterinarian and an outstanding fencer too. In January 1960, Mr. Szluha quickly established his skill at the saber scoring a perfect 3-0, in an Illinois competition against the Air Force Academy. Summarizing the performance, the DI writer wrote that “Szluha, a 26-year-old sophomore from Budpest, Hungary, left no doubt in anyone’s mind that he is going to be a sensation in the sabre“. Mr. Szluha had been fencing in Hungary for years, before coming to Illinois. A leg injury prevented Mr. Szluha from participating in the 1960 NCAA Fencing Championships. The following year, in an interview with the DI, Mr. Szluha described his life in Hungary, and his plans to become a U.S. citizen, and to fence against Hungary in the upcoming 1964 Olympics. Mr. Szluha’s profile photos were often featured in DI issues at this time too. More of Mr. Szluha’s extraordinary fencing career should be followed in detail in the pages of the Daily Illini. After graduation, Dr. Szluha would practice veterinary medicine in Oxford, Michigan for over fifty years. [4]

Mr. Paul A. Baron, (B.S. Chemistry, 1965), of Budapest, was born during World War II and an immigrant to the U.S. in 1947. [5] After completing a bachelor’s degree at Illinois, Mr. Baron was introduced to aerosol science research while working briefly at the Department of Physics on a project involving measuring radioactive isotopes in cigarette smoke. Not long after, Mr. Baron completed a doctorate at the University of California at Santa Barbara and led an outstanding career in aerosol science. Dr. Baron led a long career in aerosol science, including winner the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Alice Hamilton Awards in 2006 and 2009. In fact, the third edition of Aerosol Measurement: Principles, Techniques, and Applications featured so much of Dr. Baron’s contributions that it is dedicated to his memory.

Of course, there have been graduate students too. Some of the first Hungarian graduate students included: Clara Esther Bess, (M.A. Library Science, 1958); Ivan Paul Szilvassy, (M.S. Veterinary Medical Science, 1964); and Bela Sandor, (PhD Mechanical Engineering, 1968), to name just a few.

Early Hungarian Organizations

Since at least 1957, annual Hungarian events had been organized by local Hungarian community members including Hungarian students. First was the thank you dinner for local English instructors and Reverend O’Rourke in May of 1957. The following year, a Hungarian Night was organized at the Y.M.C.A. to introduce Hungarian cultures to the University community. A 1960 DI article documents a Hungarian Revolution commemoration including a motorcade and a ceremony at St. John’s Catholic Church. Documentation of later commemorations has not been identified yet.

And although documentation of Hungarian Illini after the 1960s is limited, student enrollment figures document that Hungarian Illini enrollment has continued modestly since at least 1982.

Are you a Hungarian Illini? Do you know someone who is? We’d like to hear from you! Please send us a message or leave a comment below. We want to include you and your story, as we celebrate the first 150 years of the University of Illinois.

Happy First 150 everyone!

References

[1] “Thomas Baron”, by Monroe E. Spaght, Memorial Tributes, National Academy of Engineering, Volume 3, pages 19-21.

[2] Meeting of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, December 17, 1957, page 1024, Record Series 1/1/802.

[3] For a recent interview with some biographical information, then please see: “Life takes Bela Sandor from Hungary to swimming to chariots on TV” by Doug Moe, Wisconsin State Journal, February 1, 2013.

[4] Oxford Community Television (OCTV) of Oxford, Michigan, completed a two-part one-hour interview with Dr. Szluha about his life in Hungary, on January 15, 2016. For more information, their videos (Part 1; Part 2) are available online (as of October 23, 2017).

[5] For a detailed biography, please see: “Obituary: Paul Baron (1944-2009)”, Journal of Aerosol Science, Volume 40, Issue 9, September 2009, Pages 731-732.