Featured Members

The William Penn Association, headed by AHF President Stephen J. Varga and founded on February 21, 1886, is the largest, wealthiest and most successful of all the Hungarian American fraternal organizations. The William Penn Association was founded on February 21, 1886 in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, by thirteen Hungarian coal miners. It was chartered by the State of Pennsylvania in December of that same year under the name “Verhovay Aid Association.” The goal of the founders was to extend a helping hand to each other and to the many Hungarian immigrants who worked and suffered in the mines and industrial centers of America at a period in its history when insurance of any sort was still in the faraway future. With no sick benefits, no unemployment compensation, and no death benefits for their families, and with the immigrants being maimed and killed by the thousands in the ever-recurring industrial accidents, they had no other recourse but to turn to each other for help. This is how fraternalism was born in America, and these are the same conditions that prompted the thirteen founders to establish the Verhovay Aid Association.

After nearly four decades of growth, and with well over three hundred chapters throughout the northeastern states, in 1926 the Home Office was moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By this time the Verhovay had grown into the largest, wealthiest and most successful of all the Hungarian American fraternal organizations. After numerous mergers, the name of the joint organization was changed to “William Penn Association” in 1972. [Visit Them - join and get insured!]

Professor Andrew Davidhazy is one the world's foremost experts on technical / scientific photograpahy. He is a Professor and Chairman of the Imaging and Photographic Technology Department, School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Prof. Davidhazy's work in high-speed photography, as seen here in his famous "splash," is well-recognized. His father was a captain in the Hungarian merchant marine who later moved to Argentina and then to the US and was influential in shipbuilding industry. His long-term interest has been the field of scanning or strip photography. This started in the mid-60's and extends to this day. Applications include panoramic, peripheral, photofinish, and other derivatives of an "ingenious" approach to image-making. He served on the House Select Committee the reexamination of the photographs of Lee Harvey Oswald and was called upon to authenticate a photograph of O. J. Simpson wearing some shoes he claimed never to have owned! [See his personal site]

Les Besser, Engineer: “Father of microwave computer-aided design" - Microwave Engineering

Les (Laszlo) Besser, was national under-16 year hurdle record holder in 1952, graduated from Kando Kalman technical school in 1954, and won two Hungarian national junior championships in 1955. Escaping to Canada after the 1956 revolution, he continued with his running career, and received a track scholarship to study electrical engineering in the US. At the University of Colorado he received the Pacesetter Award and was selected to be “The Outstanding Engineering Student” and co-captain of the school’s soccer team in 1966.

After gaining practical engineering experience at Hewlett Packard and Fairchild corporations, he authored COMPACT (Computerized Optimization of Microwave Passive and Active CircuiTs), the world’s first commercially successful microwave circuit optimization routine, soon to become the industry standard. He then founded Compact Software, a pioneer CAD software company (now part of Ansoft), and was active in serving the engineering design needs of the RF/Microwave industry during the next ten years. In 1980, his company merged with Communication Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) where Dr. Besser functioned as a Senior Vice President.

In 1985, recognizing the need for advanced continuing education, he started Besser Associates, a training organization that has provided live training to more than 45,000 engineers, managers, and technicians world-wide, retiring from the company in 2004. Read more about him and other Famous Hungarians on The Hungary Page.

Dr. Adam Makkai is Professor Emeritus, Syntax, poetics, general linguistics at the University of Illinois.

Dr. Ádám Makkai participated in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution as a college student. After the Soviet army crushed the Revolution, he emigrated to the United States, where he received a B.A. from Harvard, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale. Adam Makkai's current interests include the history of lexicography, the present state of the art and its possible future development with the arrival of the electronic age. He is engaged in translating Hungarian poetry into English (two volumes have appeared) and continues to research appropriate ways to render Hungarian poetry in English to best advantage. See his personal site and the University of Illinois site.

Rev. Dr. Imre Bertalan was born in Nyirtass in Szabolcs County, Hungary in 1918. He attended the Sárospatak Seminary, and did post-graduate work in Halle, Germany, Basel, Zurich, and Geneva, Switzerland. Completing his studies in Switzerland in 1946, he was unable to return to Hungarydue to first German and then Soviet occupation. Within a year, however, he recieved a scholarship ti Princeton Seminary in New Jersey. He accepted his first post as a part-time pastor to the Hungarian Reformed Church on Staten Island. He would eventually become the minister of the Hungarian Reformed Church of Washington, D.C., in 1981. In 1980, he was elected President of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America and led the organization until his retirement in 1992. He holds an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Hope College in Holland, MI (1988), and from the Theological Faculty of the Debrecen University (1989). He is President Emeritus of the American Hungarian Federation and has served on the boards of the HRFA, the Hungarian American Coalition, and the American Section of the World Alliance of Hungarians. Rev. Bertalan has recently been awarded the "A Magyar Köztársaság Tisztikeresztje."

The Center for Hungarian American Congressional Relations, (CHACR), headed by Sandor Nagy, empowers Hungarian Americans to voice their opinions in the US Congress. We serve as a bridge between our elected representatives and their Hungarian American constituents. [Read More]

Monarchia Wines - Monarchia Matt International...
One of the great Hungarian business success stories in recent months is Monarchia Wines (MMI) which brings hand-crafted, artisan wines from the premier family estates of Hungary as well as small production wines from the country's top regions. To give Monarchia a unique profile, a team of experts in Hungary provides the critical quality control. So successful has Monarchia's business model been, they have almost single-handedly changed the face and reputation on Hungarian wines around the world in but a few months. See an article on PRWeb

Peter Hargitai, poet, novelist, and an award-winning translator of Hungarian literature, grew up in the tiny village of Balástya in southern Hungary. He and his family fled the country in the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution. They settled in the United States where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has taught at several American universities including the University of Miami, the University of Massachusetts, and Florida International University where he is currently on the English faculty.

His book of translations of Attila József, Perched on Nothing's Branch is listed in Harold Bloom's The Western Canon. Peter Hargitai is past recipient of the Landon Translation Award from the American Academy of Poets, The Füst Milán Award from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the Pro Cultura Hungarica Medal from the Republic of Hungary. His books are available for purchase on our [publications] page.

The HungarianAmerica Foundation...
Reaching out to the next generation is perhaps the greatest challenge for AHF and other Hungarian organizations in the United States. AHF is pleased to announce that one of the most active and dynamic organizations in Washington DC has joined us. The HungarianAmerica Foundation was founded in 2003, for charitable, scientific, literary, and educational purposes. [more]

AHF's Tako Geza Award winner, Dr. Stephen Szilagyi, founded SARA, "Sharing America's Resources Abroad. SARA is a Christian ministry offering medical assistance to improve lives around the world.From humble beginnings, SARA has distributed millions of dollars in medical supplies, services, and medical care, establishing a network of doctors and suppliers ready to assist the needy.

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