George Kondor

George Andrew Kondor
George Kondor
Born	1933-12-15 Budapest, Hungary
Died	2019-01-28
Years in Thunder Bay	1974 (arrived to teach at Lakehead); at least 1994 and 2003 (Chronicle-Journal notices); 2019 (died)
Occupation	professor of economics
Employer	Lakehead University
Father	János Kondor
Mother	Erzsébet Sándor (mother of George Kondor)
Partner	Maria Seress (wife of George Kondor)
Children	Kathy (daughter of George Kondor)

George Andrew Kondor ((1933-12-15)15 December 1933 – 28 January 2019(2019-01-28) (aged 85)) was a Hungarian-born economist who survived the Holocaust as a child and later taught economics at Lakehead University, where he became Professor Emeritus of Economics.

Early life and career in Hungary

Kondor was born on 15 December 1933 in Budapest, the son of Dr. János and Erzsébet Sándor. As a Jewish child in wartime Hungary he survived with the help of Raoul Wallenberg, whom his father had assisted, and under the protection of the Swedish government. He developed a love of applied mathematics and earned a doctorate in mathematical economics at Eötvös Loránd University, was a principal researcher at the Economics Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and taught at Corvinus University. His co-authored book Economic Efficiency and Shadow Prices (1965) was required reading at Corvinus for 28 years, and he appeared several times in the Who's Who in Hungary.

Canada

In the early 1970s Kondor taught in Nigeria with his first wife Ágnes, where their son Andrew was born. In 1974 he emigrated from Africa to Canada to teach at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay. He married Maria Seress of Győr, Hungary, on 22 December 1982, and their daughter Kathy was born soon after. He helped many people through charity, especially children in need and new Hungarian immigrants, and was known for his storytelling, sense of humour and love of children, dogs and Hungarian salami.

Death and family

He died peacefully on 28 January 2019, aged 85, surrounded by his family; the family thanked the cancer clinic and palliative care unit of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and staff of Bayshore, and asked that donations go to a scholarship at Lakehead in his name or to the Canadian Cancer Society. He was survived by his wife Maria; his children Andrew (with Janina) and Kathy (with András); grandchildren Evan, Ethan and Eric; and his sister Csöpi. His father János and mother Bözsi died before him.

Newspaper record

• Biographical notice in The Chronicle-Journal, 1994-07-04.
  • Recorded with the title "Dr."
  • Index note: LU long service award.
• Birthday notice in The Chronicle-Journal, 2003-12-15.
  • Recorded with the title "Dr."
  • Index note: 70.

Possibly related records

These Chronicle-Journal notices name a George Kondor but carry nothing that confirms they concern this George Kondor, so they are listed as possibly the same person.

• Biographical notice in The Chronicle-Journal, 1983-10-29.
  • Index note: Wants better education for son.
• Photo notice in The Chronicle-Journal, 2008-04-23.
  • Index note: Math Olympics prep.

Notes

This article combines the Lakehead retirees' memorial entry with newspaper notices about a Dr. George Kondor at Lakehead University (a 1994 long-service award and a 2003 notice of his seventieth birthday, which matches his birth in December 1933); two further name-only notices, from 1983 and 2008, are listed separately as possibly related.

Membership in the retirees' association

The "Who are we?" list of members printed in the June 2009 issue of RALU News includes this person, which shows membership in the Retirees' Association of Lakehead University by then. He was also one of the ten association members identified at a 2011 meeting of the Lakehead University professional pension plan, according to a report in the September 2011 issue.