Jeno was born in Budapest, Hungary to Andras Szakacs and Julianna Botka Szakacs. He prepared for a career in research biochemistry but the war interrupted his applying for medical school in Hungary and in 1944 he made his way to Rome, where he matriculated in Medicine at the University of Rome (La Sapienza). During Easter break in 1949 vacationing in Florence he met Mirella Ruttgers, a Biology major, and his companion for life. They were married in 1950 and both graduated a few days apart in 1951.
On January 11, 1952 they arrived in New York after a stormy Atlantic crossing and proceeded to South Bend Indiana then on to Chicago for an internship at the Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago. For a short period Jeno started to build a private practice, but soon was called to active duty by the US Navy where he eventually trained in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Bethesda US Naval Medical School, NNMC.
Jeno was a founding member of the Association of Clinical Scientists and since 1956 participated in almost all of the workshops and scientific meetings, these provided stimulus for his professional accomplishments and provided comradery of outstanding leaders in clinical science.
In 1962, he was selected to be the laboratory director at the Naval Hospital, St Albans, New York. After 4 years, he was sent to the Armed forces institute of pathology (AFIP) where he learned electron microscopy (EM) and through collaborative work became interested in tumor virology.
In 1967 Jeno left the Navy and with the family moved to Tampa, Florida where he became the Chief of Pathology at the new St Joseph’s Hospital. While at St Joseph’s he helped to establish the medical school in Tampa which opened in 1972 as the University Of South Florida College Of Medicine. In 1986 he was invited to join the regular faculty as professor and to start the laboratory at Moffitt Cancer Center.
In 1994 Jeno retired but had a wonderful wood workshop where he made furniture and turned bowls which he enjoyed well into his 90’s.
Jeno is survived by his wife and life partner Mirella, his two children Juliana and Gabor and many loving nieces and nephews who over two continents have kept the family close.
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