hospital in Pulaski, TN on March 7, 2018, at the age of 92.
Stefan was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1926. He was raised in a close-knit
family with three brothers. As a teenager, he became a successful professional
boxer, winning many bouts in his weight class.
During World War II, at age 18, he enlisted as an aviation cadet in the
Hungarian Air Force and fought in the Battle of Budapest, one of the most
brutal sieges of World War II. After the Russian capture of the city in February
1945, Stefan witnessed many of the atrocities perpetrated by the million-man
Russian Army on the surviving residents of the city. He was one of 500,000
Hungarians captured during the war to provide forced labor in Soviet prison
camps. Despite the risk of being shot on sight, Stefan organized a courageous
escape for a small number of prisoners during their march to Russia and led
them safely through the Hungarian countryside into Austria. He later entered
Germany clandestinely on the top of a railroad car. Because of his boxing
skills, Stefan worked as a professional boxer until he was able to secure a
position as a painter apprentice, studying both in school and for a Master
Painter to obtain his professional painter’s license. While in Germany he met
and married Hannelore Reisser and they had a son, Rudi.
In 1955 he moved his family to Canada, and in 1958 they relocated to Chicago
where he worked as a professional painter. Stefan and Hannelore became U.S.
citizens while living in Chicago, and in 2012 they moved to Pulaski to be closer
to their son and daughter-in-law.
Stefan loved music, especially Hungarian and German folk music. He was a
great dancer, loved to sing and had a beautiful voice. He had a wonderful
sense of humor and was completely devoted to his family.
Stefan is survived by his wife of 69 years, Hannelore, their son, Rudi, and his
wife, Betty, two step grandchildren, Jonathan Ford and Kathryn Mills, two step
great-grandchildren, Anna and Jack Ford, and two brothers, Jakob and Rudi
Mayer of Budapest.
Stefan was greatly loved and will be sorely missed.
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