[Staff] Gift Announcement – Tom Kertesz 1960 Engineering Alum Makes Bequest

[Eugene Olevsky]

To:  All SDSU Engineering Faculty, Staff and Dean’s Advisory Board

From:  Interim Dean Eugene Olevsky  and Senior Director of Development Kate
Carinder



*Gift Announcement – Kertesz Makes Bequest for Scholarship in Memory of
Kramer and Marjorie Rohfleisch*

*Tom Kertesz is a 1960 SDSU Engineering Alum.*

 For Tom Kertesz, anywhere was better than where he’d been - he came to the
United States after surviving the Holocaust and nine years of communist
rule in Hungary.

Tom hails from Kalocsa, Hungary, the “Paprika Capital of the World.”
 During WWII, Tom’s father was sent to the Soviet front as a member of one
of the Jewish labor battalions and was killed there in early 1943 during
the battle of Stalingrad. In 1944, Tom, his mother and grandparents were
first confined to the Kalocsa ghetto, then sent to a series of
concentration camps in Germany.



Tom came to the US at the end of 1956 after the Hungarian uprising against
communist rule. With the help of the Ford Foundation he applied for a
scholarship at SDSU. A combined student body and faculty committee raised
funds for Hungarian students. The committee also asked faculty and staff to
host the students/refugees for one month until the students could get on
their feet.  Dr. Kramer Rohfleisch, Professor of History, and Marjorie
Rohfleisch, Professor of Music, agreed to host Tom - and the one month
turned into 3.5 years.



After graduation, Tom worked on a hydro-electric plant, served in the Army
Corps of Engineers and acquired some additional education.  In 1963 he
joined Lockheed Missile and Space Company, where, over a 35 year career, he
rose from Engineering Analyst to Chief Scientist for their Space Division.
He retired in 1998 and began a second career as a consultant. Later he
taught spacecraft design at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.

Tom remained close to the Rohfleischs until their deaths and says he is
eternally grateful to the Rohfleisch family for their kindness and humanity
in giving him a home and a second family.  Now, Tom has made a bequest that
will establish the *Kramer and Marjorie Rohfleisch Memorial Scholarship
Fund*, for the benefit of SDSU’s History Department, to honor the couple
who so generously hosted him as a student. The fund will commemorate their
teaching excellence and humanity, and will provide an annual scholarship to
a deserving student majoring in History.


While the Kertesz bequest does not support the College of Engineering, we
feel it’s an incredible story and want to share it with the College of
Engineering.  If you know of someone who may want to support the College of
Engineering, please contact Eugene or Kate.

***********************************

Eugene A. Olevsky, Ph.D.; FASME; FACerS; FASM
Interim Dean and Distinguished Professor
College of Engineering
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-1323
Office: (619)-594-6061
E-mail: eolevsky at sdsu.edu <eolevsky at mail.sdsu.edu>
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