Vilmos Agoston

He has been known by most of his friends and family by the nickname: Vilka that was given to him by his grandmother.

Vilka was born in Marosvasarhely, Romania on July 8th, 1947 to Vilmos Agoston (the only survivor in his Jewish family that perished in Auschwitz and who barely returned from the Nazi forced labor camp) and Erzsbet Havadti (an avid catholic teacher) and grew up in his hometown. He attended the Babes-Bolyai Universitys Philology Department in Kolozsvar, Romania (while also working as a construction worker to support himself). In 1970 he was persecuted for fabricated/factitious political reasons and accused to be an American spy by the Romanian communist secret service and consequently he was expelled from the University in 1971. The next year supported by the Romanian Writers Union he was reinstituted to the University. He graduated with Hungarian and English major but due to his political history was not allowed to pursue his career as a writer and editor as he always dreamed of, rather he was sent to Csikszereda, Romania to teach English and World literature in the local Highschool. It was not until 1978 that he could move back to Marosvasarhely where he was a radio reporter until the dissolution of the radio station in 1985 when he went on to work for a pest control company. He was one of the founding members of the MAM artistic group. In 1986 he immigrated with his wife Gabriella and only daughter Ildiko to Budapest, Hungary to escape the dictatorship of Ceausescu. He became a journalist at the Magyar Nemzet Daily Newspaper until 1991, then from 1992-94 worked at Koztarsasag and 1994-95 Respublika independent political weekly newspapers as editor. He was an invited lecturer for 6 months at Hokkaido University, Japan in 1997. He obtained his PhD degree in 1998 at JATE, Szeged, Hungary. He was the editor in chief of the Magyar Mhely (Hungarian Workshop) published regularly in Paris. From 1998-2002 worked at the European Public Foundation for Comparative Minority Studies.

For most of his life he was a freelance writer, started his writing career in 1969 when he published in the Utunk then numerous articles in Korunk, Igaz Szo , Het, Ifjumunkas( hungarian literary magazines for the Hungarian minorities in Romania). He edited books of several contemporary writers, published essays written on Hemingway, Thornton Wilder, James Joyce and Tibor Dery. He published three novels: "Slow virus" (1981), "Play the anthem and do not curse "(1989) "Godir and Galanter" (1998) and several essays, interviews and scientific works on the effect of nationalism in Eastern Europe, the most important being "The monopolized space. The national mind in the works of Doru Munteanu and Albert Wass" ( 2008). After 2007 he moved with his wife permanently to United States to help raise his beloved grandchildren Anna and Peter and settled in San Antonio in 2011.

He is survived by his wife Gabriella Agoston, daughter Ildiko Agoston and two grandkids Anna Szalai and Peter Szalai.

A celebration of his life will be held at Porter Loring North San Antonio (2102 N Loop 1604 E, San Antonio, TX 78232) on January 15th at 9AM. Please click here to view Dr. Agoston's service.