Steven Mischak
(April 9, 1937-Oct 17th, 2009)
Long-time member of HRFA, recording secretary for Branch 176 fo 14 years.

Steven (Steve) Mischak, 72, of Hobart, passed away at 11:41pm on Saturday, October 17, 2009, at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Hobart.  He was born on April 9th, 1937, in Budapest, Hungary to the late Karoly Mischak and Ilona Elsenbammer.  On July 20th, 1963 he married Katherine (Kati) Mischak (NEE Gardi).  Mr. Mischak is survived by his loving wife of 46 years and his three sons, Steve (Rebecca) Mischak of Palos Park, Illinois; Laszlo (Renee) Mischak of South Bend, Indiana; Thomas (Karen) Mischak of St. John, Indiana; and 8 grandchildren.

Steve was a freedom fighter during the Hungarian revolution before leaving Hungary December 30th, 1956, at the tender age of 19.   He left Hungary alone, leaving his widowed mother and family behind; he could not see getting married and raising a family under Communist rule. He set his sights for the promising opportunities of the Unites States to build a family with a future and to chase the American Dream.

Steve found work cleaning the slag pits in the Steel Mills of Gary.  He studied hard and quickly learned the English language.  After being laid off, he started a new, promising career with NIPSCO (electric utility) where he worked for 36.5 years before finally retiring June 1st, 1994.  At NIPSCO, he went through a serious of training and certification regiments, earning the equivalent of 3 years of college credits. Steve was promoted through the ranks and finished his career as a substation electrician crew leader; he was very proud of the work he performed and the relationships that he had established.

Steve was an avid reader (both English and Hungarian) and would often immerse himself in his many books, periodicals and newspapers of the world.  His favorite subject was world history and was particularly fond of World War II literature.  He also collected historical memorabilia and authored a 600+ page memoir detailing his own life experiences as related to historical significant events of the time. The memoir was never meant to be published in his lifetime, per his wishes.   He was active with the Holy Trinity Council and the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America’s (HRFA) Kossuth Club, working as the recording secretary for 14 years for Branch 176 where he wrote numerous articles for the Fraternal magazine.

Steve’s greatest pleasure was traveling (many times at Kati’s prompting) and spending time with his family.  He treasured his time telling stories and teaching his grand kids how to draw. He loved his wife, his 3 sons, and grand kids: Jack 11, Katie 9, Nicole 9, Emily 8, Maddie 7, Gracie 6, Sam 6 and Meagan 2.  He was a great husband, loving father, grandfather, brother-in-law, uncle, friend and teacher and will be deeply missed by all who knew him.