On 29 September, 2008, Mr. László Fülöp a board member of the Minnesota Hungarians and Vice President and Board member of the Hungarian American Coalition, received the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary from Kinga Goncz, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Hungary.

Ms. Göncz also granted the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit the catholic priest Laszlo Vas, who worked in Chicago for nearly a decade, and to Hungary’s Honorary Consul in Chicago, IL, Ms. Kaarina Koskenalusta.

Ms. Göncz also met leaders of the local ethnic Hungarian community and told them about the Hungarian government’s efforts to help ethnic Hungarians living beyond the borders. “Instead of lifting borders, Trianon can be overcome by exercising the European Union’s four freedoms” (the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital), Göncz said.” This of course also requires maintaining good relations with neighboring countries,” she added.

Mr. László G. Fülöp was raised in the towns of Tiszakécske, Máramarossziget, and Szentendre. He was conscripted to a forced labor division in Komló and Budapest in 1954-55. In 1956, he took an active role in the Revolution, then fled to Austria in January of 1957. He studied architecture in Vienna, Austria and at the University of Minnesota; he worked in private practice, then at the Universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin as Director of Planning and Construction 1975-90. With his wife Ágnes Sylvester, Mr. Fülöp has long been a leader of the Association of the Minnesota Hungarians. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Hungarian American Coalition since 1996, a former President of the Hungarian Community of Friends, and also a member of the American Hungarian Federation.