Foregoers - Famous San Diegans

The plaque outside the Hungarian cottage states that Haraszthy was the first sheriff of San Diego and that he lived from 1812 to 1869. This hardly does justice to a man and his family who contributed so much to America and to California in particular. Here is the story of this Hungarian-born American. Ágoston Haraszthy’s […]

Sándor Márai was born in the city of Kassa in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Slovakia) on April 11, 1900, in a Hungarian family of German lineage. His father, Géza Grosschmid, was a jurist and after World War I, he was Kassa’s elected representative in the Czechoslovak legislature. Márai studied in Kassa, Eperjes and Budapest. […]

Zoltán Rozsnyai was born in Budapest, on January 29th, 1926. He is a graduate of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, where he studied under Zoltan Kodaly, Bela Bartok, and Ernest von Dohnanyi, among others. Already a concert pianist at the age of 10, he was one of the youngest students ever accepted by the […]