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November 3, 2006 Vol. 77,
no. 12F
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| HUNGARIAN AMERICAN: Istvan Gorog (B.S.’61, M.S.’62, Ph.D.’64 EE) told the story of his journey to Berkeley at a colloquium on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. He stands in front of the revolution’s flag, from which the Soviet coat of arms is cut out.
RACHEL SHAFER PHOTO
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Budapest to Berkeley and beyond
EE alum recounts his journey from revolutionary to successful engineer
When Istvan Gorog (B.S.’61, M.S.’62, Ph.D.’64
EE) arrived at UC Berkeley in 1957, he had few clothes and no money.
His family was 6,099 miles away in Budapest, Hungary, and he wasn’t
sure if he’d ever see them again. Along with 200,000 other refugees,
he had escaped from Hungary after Soviet forces brutally quashed a
popular uprising against the communist government in October 1956.
As a Technical University student, he had taken part in peaceful demonstrations.
Now, he was lucky to be alive. He was 18.
Today, Gorog is 68 and the president and CEO of CAPA Technologies,
a company he started this year after spending more than 40 years in
consumer electronics research and management. Recently, Gorog returned
to campus to share his story at a colloquium that commemorated the
50th anniversary of the “1956 Hungarian Revolution and Freedom
Fight.”
“My resentment toward the government in Hungary grew and matured,” Gorog
told the packed audience in Sibley Auditorium. “By 18, I had
a general plan to leave the country. But on October 23, suddenly there
was a revolt, and we felt we could build a new Hungary. We marched
in the streets. People were throwing flowers, and gypsies were singing.
Then, on November 4, fresh Soviet troops entered the country. They
occupied our campus with tanks. People started to disappear. I had
to leave.”
Carrying forged papers, Gorog and a friend traveled west by train,
truck and finally on foot. After two days and nights with nothing to
guide them but a compass, they arrived in Austria. Eventually, they
ended up in New Jersey, where, through the World University Service,
Gorog met ChemE professor Charles Tobias. Tobias, also a native of
Hungary, was active in helping Hungarian refugee students. He arranged
for Gorog and three others to come to UC Berkeley.
Tobias found Gorog a job washing dishes in International House to pay
for his room and board there. By working and swapping resources with
other Hungarian students, Gorog kept himself afloat through seven years
of school. It was on campus he also met his future wife.
After earning his doctorate, he returned to the East Coast to take
a job with RCA Laboratories, where he rose to director. In 1992 he
became general manager of Thomson’s R&D Center in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, where he had full product responsibility for a billion-
dollar market that represented one- third of all TV displays sold in
the United States. He holds 45 U.S. patents, and his new company is
now working on nanotechnologies for next-generation HDTVs.
Gorog joins other 1956ers with legendary stories, such as Andy Grove
(Ph.D.’63 ChemE), a fellow Hungarian refugee and Berkeley engineer
who went on to co-found Intel.
“Life is a synthesis of events that make up our selves,” Gorog
concluded at the colloquium. “America’s values have enabled
us refugees to succeed and help others. That spirit of freedom, willingness
to reach out with a helping hand and our commitment to basic human
rights should prevail.”
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