It is with sincere regret and sadness that we inform you of the death of our long time friend, Coalition member, Board member and officer Peter Soltesz, who passed away last Thursday, after losing his fight with cancer.

Peter Soltesz was born in 1946 and was a ten-year old eyewitness to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. His family was part of the wave of Hungarian refugees who escaped to Austria and soon thereafter emigrated to the United States, where he earned a degree in engineering at City College of the University of New York and an MS in Electrical Engineering from New York University in 1970.

Peter A. Soltesz at the Mikulas Dinner in 2006

Mr. Soltesz worked as an engineer, research scientist and consultant for companies such as Winstar, MA-COM, Datacrown, Warner Computer Systems and Boeing. In his professional career he traveled widely giving seminars in Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Thailand, Japan, Finland and Canada. He worked as consultant to numerous telecommunications companies in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom, Spain and Thailand.

Soon after Hungary’s one party system ended in 1989, Mr. Soltesz returned to Hungary to assist in the performance of telecommunications feasibility studies for the Office of the Prime Minister and the Hungarian Parliament. He was a consultant for a project proposal for a Rural Fiber Optic and Microwave Telephony project for MATAV, the Hungarian Telecommunications Company.

Later in his career, Mr. Soltesz founded and was president of PAS-COM, Inc.a consortium of engineering consulting experts providing systems analysis integration, strategic planning, litigation and management consulting, economic analysis for telecommunications and data systems.

Peter Soltesz was Board member and Secretary of the Hungarian American Coalition, with the goals to promote cultural and educational exchanges between the United States and Hungary and to protect the human rights of Hungarian minorities.

After suddenly becoming ill earlier this year, Peter Soltesz died on August 28, 2008, at his home in Rockville. Survivors include her widow Barbara Soltesz, her daughter Andrea, and their son Erik, of Rockville, MD.

If you wish to convey your condolences, please write to the Coalition address below, and we will forward it to the family:

Hungarian American Coalition
1120 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 280
Washington, DC 20036