From Ferenc "Frank" Novak:

I was born in Budapest in 1934. My father was a government official between the two world wars.  When the communists took over following the Soviet occupation, he lost his job and our family was deported to the countryside , where we supported ourselves doing various menial jobs. After Stalin's death in 1953, our deportation was lifted and I was able to finish my secondary schooling, but was denied admission to any university because of my parents' status as "class enemy". Instead, in 1954 I was drafted into an Army working battalion and assigned to the coal mines in Komlo, in southern Hungary.  That is where I was

during the days of October 1956.

When the revolution broke out, we supported the miners' strike and awaited orders to join the fight against the invading Soviet troops. Those orders never came and our unit simply disbanded.

One week after the second Soviet invasion I left Hungary with a brother and some friends. Eventually we received our visas and came to America in December 1956. Soon after arriving we found ourselves at Bard, being part of a fortunate group of refugee students partaking of the excellent orientation program organized for us here.

In the fall of 1957 I entered Princeton University on a four-year scholarship. Upon graduation I started working first as an engineer and later in the field of information technology. In 1969 I received my MS degree in Operations Research from Stevens Institute of Technology. After a career of over 30 years I retired as manager of office automation systems at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

I am married, have four children and live in Short Hills, New Jersey.