2021 In Memoriam

December 27, 2021

CEU remembers the valued members of our university community lost in 2021. Reflecting upon the lives and contributions of those who have passed, CEU is grateful to have been shaped by them. Our thoughts are with their families and friends.

 

Laszlo Bito (1934-2021)
Research scientist and with his wife Olivia Carino, founding patron of CEU’s Henrik Birnbaum Memorial Scholarship Fund in Medieval Studies.

Alajos Dornbach (1936-2021)
Founding figure of CEU, lawyer and former member of the Hungarian parliament.

Janos Farkas (1982-2021)
Member of CEU's facilities team and front of house security staff.

Alberto Foglia (1928-2021)
Hedge fund manager and longstanding chair of George Soros' Quantum Fund; supporter of CEU who dedicated CEU’s Quantum Board Room, honoring the achievements that made the university possible.

Vartan Gregorian (1934-2021)
Historian, humanities scholar and president of Carnegie Corporation of New York; former CEU Trustee instrumental in establishing the Center for Religious Studies.

Gabor Kezdi (1971-2021)
CEU professor of economics whose work included a framework for supporting Roma education—replicated in the Balkans with USAID funding—and a major new textbook on data analysis.

A. Ross Johnson (1940-2021)
Scholar and former director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who oversaw the deposit of the RFE/RL Research Institute archives at the Blinken OSA. A longtime supporter of the university.

Anna Lengyel (1969-2021)
Dramaturg, translator, director and founder of PanoDrama; lecturer at Istvan Bibo Free University at CEU.

Blaise Pasztory (1936-2021)
Career lawyer and legal advisor with the Budapest Bar Association; CEU donor, friend and supporter.

Oswaldo Ruiz-Chiriboga (1977-2021)
CEU assistant professor of international human rights law whose work focused on the human rights implications of legal pluralism in Ecuador.

Paul Szarmach (1941-2021)
Scholar in the literature of early medieval England who assisted in the establishment of CEU's PhD program in Medieval Studies.

Joan Weintrob (1939-2021)
Founder and former president of the Orthotic Prosthetic Center, who, with her husband, was a CEU donor, friend and supporter.