William Penn Life, 2010 (45. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2010-05-01 / 5. szám

The room’s “hope chest" filled with Hungarian porcelain, embroidery and a miniature replica of the crown of St. Steven.

"Faith and peace are in their hearts. Good will has brought them together. Like the Magi of ancestral traditions and the shepherds of candid simplicity, they offer their gifts of what is precious, genuine and their own, to truth that shines forever and enlightens all people." - Author Unknown, engraved on a copper plate presented by the Nationality Room Committee chairpersons and placed in the Cathedral of Learning's cornerstone, set in 1937.

for humanity and science—to make this world a better world."

Gomory found the committee a new purpose by focusing on the work of the university. In October 1960, he established a scholarship endowment fund with his personal check for $500. The plan was to build the fund through donations until it reached $10,000. Then, the committee would begin awarding scholarships to students enrolled at the university who wished to pursue studies in Hungary.

Despite the worthiness of the new project, the committee saw little growth in support. John

C. Miller, the committee's late treasurer and historian, wrote that "if it wasn't for the continuous support from the William Penn Association, we would have been in the red most of the time."

The WPA, like its predecessor societies—the Verhovay and Rákóczi associations—remained steadfast in its commitment to the committee and its new mission. It continued to make donations annually to the committee. Those donations-along with contributions from private sources, the sale of artifacts the room could not use and money raised through events sponsored by the WPA—eventually allowed the committee to reach its goal of $10,000.

Unfortunately, Gomory never witnessed the realization of that goal. Gomory, who served as chairman of the Hungarian Room Committee for 47 years, the longest continuous term of any nationality room chairman, died in 1975. In his honor, the committee renamed its scholarship fund after its longtime leader.

It would take another 10 years after Gomory's death-a total of 25 years after he established the endowment-that the Dr. Samuel C. Gomory Scholarship Fund reached its goal. In 1985, the committee awarded a scholarship to Simon Erzsébet to pursue her studies in Hungary. Five years later, university student Michael Fekete received the first Dr. Samuel C. Gomory Memorial Scholarship, using the grant to fund his summer studies in Hungary.

The committee continues to award scholarships annually to deserving students studying abroad. The effect of those awards is deep, personal and potentially beneficial to all. 'My hopes to study abroad in Hungary were merely hopes," wrote 2007 grant recipient Max Walko. "It was only after I heard about the Hungarian Room Committee-sponsored scholarship at Pitt that my hopes and dreams became a possiblity....In my future, I know I will often have the occasion to recall the information and first-hand knowledge I was privileged to experience abroad, and I will always do so with gratitude to the Hungarian Room Committee and William Penn Association."

What Walko and other committee scholarship recipients experience studying in Hungary is similar to what all visitors to the Hungarian Room experience: a deeper understanding and appreciation of the long, rich history and culture of the Magyar people and the realization that a better future is possible when we honor and cherish the traditions of our past. □

William Penn Life ° May 2010 ° 17