Magyar News, 2005. szeptember-december (16. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)

2005-09-01 / 1. szám

During this time, Kvassay made friends with several members of the American military, and conducted secret work for military intelligence, supplying friends at the American and British missions with whatever information that he could gather. "To me, this was more of a lark; I did not think at the time about the possible consequences," he said. "I certainly did not think of myself as a spy."

Kvassay's father, before the Communist took full power, was appointed Consul General in Istanbul, Turkey, so the family-minus his brother who had fallen in love and elected to stay in Budapest - moved. "Once there," said Kvassay, "I contacted Major Gilbert E. Bursley , American Army Attaché in Istanbul and started feeding him whatever bits of information I could gather. Without realizing it, I was slipping into activities that might well have been called espionage." It was this very stream of activities that would be his ticket to America.

Less than a year later the communists took full control of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, relieved Kvassay's father of his duties, and ordered them to return to Hungary. His father decided to retire and go back, but Living under communism in Hungary was not the Least bit attractive to Alex. He took his stamped passport that read, "Valid for return to Hungary Only" and re-validated it with his own stamp (left to him by his father) "Hungarian Foreign Office", and began thinking about what to do next.

America

Kvassay's father Left him with $200, the rubber stamp, and good wishes. Since he spoke no Turkish, his prospects of finding a job were impossible. Emigrating to the United States was out of the question, because the quota List for a Hungarian visa stood at 1.2 years. Little did he know it, but

the Pentagon had already decided his fate.

Kvassay went to see Major Bursley for job suggestions. "He said I could take my passport and go see the American consul, John E. McAndrews. The consul told me he had instructions from Washington to issue me a visitor's visa to the United States, which he did, gave me a ticket on a cargo ship, some Turkish cash and the phone number of an Army colonel in Washington, D.C."

After a week in Washington, Kvassay was given a job at the Pentagon in the translation section of Army Intelligence. "I was very fortunate because most immigrants that came to America in those days took jobs loading trucks at the market," said Kvassay, "and here I was living in the bachelor officer's quarters at Ft. Myers, Virginia with my own desk at the Pentagon. I translated French, German, and Hungarian documents into English and was paid by the page."

Kvassay learned some 36 years later that his coming to the United States was in recognition of his services in Istanbul.

To expedite becoming an American citizen, he joined the U.S. Army, which shortened the waiting period for citizenship from five years to three. Three years later after an honorable discharge from the army, he again returned to the Pentagon looking for a career. He set his sights high, and, with the help of an executive placement service, sent out 500 resumes. Six months later Beech Aircraft Corporation in Wichita sent him an application and oifered him a job interview in their export division. "I made it perfectly clear that I was interested in the job, but knew nothing about airplanes," Kvassay said. "I was hired on the basis that it would be cheaper for them to teach me to fly than to teach someone else several languages."

Kvassay says he will be forever grateful to a young secretary who, during a staff

Kvassay was a sergeant in the U.S. Army, stationed at Ft. Riley, Kansas

meeting where the export executives said they would like to hire someone to do all the traveling they did not want to do, remembered the letter from the "young Hungarian" and presented it to them. Later this same secretary, Celia Bredehoft, became his wife and lifelong partner.

Marketing & Selling Aviation

"Alex would succeed in anything he decided to do," said Jim Greenwood, who at the time worked with Kvassay at Beech. "He's highly intelligent and has an uncanny intellect about world affairs, which was a huge asset for the export division." "Nobody at Beech sold airplanes," Kvassay said. "The signing on the bottom line was accomplished by franchise distributors which they had all over the world. My job, was to work with the distributor and make sure the airplanes were built the way the customer wanted them." This required that Kvassay to know everything about the aircraft, how to market it to foreign markets, and leam to fly. Kvassay credits Beechcraft for giving him a chance to leam a business in which he could later prosper, but after 12 years and relatively no prospects of advancing from the number four position, he moved to Leaijet in a number one position.

The move provided Kvassay with a chance to actually sell airplanes instead of servicing distributors who had already made the sale. "At Learjet," said Kvassay, “I worked with the few distributors they had but also sold directly to the customer." He eventually outsold all competitors, and his foreign sales, on at least two occasions, literally saved the company when the economy plummeted. "Ninety percent of successful selling," Kvassay says, "is based on selecting a salable product, and then working hard at it.”

"It also helps to have someone of Kvassay's high principals on board," said Greenwood, who was now senior vice president of corporate affairs at Leaijet. "Everyone I know in the aviation industry respected his integrity. He actually pioneered several concepts at Lear for us. One was using business jets for special mis-In 1958 German aviation pioneer Professor Willy Messerschmidt visited Beech Aircraft Corp., and at this time Kvassay was his guide.

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