December 12, 1938 - July 13, 2019
Ivan, 80, loving husband, father, and grandfather, peacefully passed at Providence St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica. He had been a resident of Mar Vista Hilltop since 1969.
Ivan was born in Budapest, Hungary in a military hospital. During WWII his father relocated his family to the relative safety of the small village of Lebeny in western Hungary where he had distant relatives. Sadly, his father never returned from the war. For years they held out hope, but eventually the family learned that he had died in a work camp in Siberia. At age 7 he moved to Komarom, Hungary. He participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and daringly escaped to Austria. He applied to the U.S. Embassy in Vienna and was flown to the USA. He arrived at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey on his 18th birthday. He didn't know a word of English. He lived in New Jersey, Buffalo, then New York City where he studied photography and graduated from the N.Y. Institute of Photography. In the early 1960s he moved to Los Angeles where he resided continuously, with a short interruption for his tour of duty in the U.S. Army where he was stationed at Fort Polk, LA. He became a U.S. citizen in 1966.
He was the second of four children born to Joszef Gradinger Galambos and Vilma Tischler.
Ivan was predeceased by his older brother Tamas and younger sister Maria.
He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Deborah; two sons: Guy of San Luis Obispo and Andrew of Mar Vista; two grandsons: Noah and Zane; two granddaughters: Emma and Ezra; two daughters-in-law: Shoshannah and Holly; his mother-in-law Joan Bayley Weamer; and his younger brother, Laszlo, of Komarom, Hungary.
Ivan loved photography, travel, tennis, working in his yard, boating, fishing, and spending time with his grandkids.
He traveled annually to Hungary to nourish his bond with his siblings and his many nephews and nieces.
He proudly owned and operated Pico Machine Co. in Culver City for 43 years. He was proud of having put his wife and both sons through college and that they all went on to get advanced degrees.
A memorial service was held at his home. In Hungary a memorial service will be held in September. Some of his ashes were scattered at sea off Marina del Rey, some will be interred in Hungary next to his mother and grandmother, and some at Westwood Village Memorial Park.
He was a loyal American, but remained a proud Hungarian. Ivan will be greatly missed by many.
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