Dr. George Polgar

George Polgar often told his family he firmly decided to become a doctor when he was 5 years old. He began his career in his native Hungary earning his medical degree at the prestigious University of Szeged in 1938. Through his career he treated persecuted fellow Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary, Iron Curtain refugees in Austria and Camp Kilmer NJ, and later Sophia Loren and family members of the Royal House of Saud of Saudi Arabia. He is also recognized as one of the world's leading clinicians, researchers, and authors in the field of pulmonary physiology and the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis. Dr. Polgar was one of a team of three doctors at University of Pennsylvania who developed the ventilation units that have saved the lives of countless premature infants over the last 40 years. During World War II his family was persecuted and lost control of vast vineyard estates, large-scale wine-making operations and businesses including a bank, and a law firm, In the face of these setbacks and continually under the threat of imprisonment and deportation to the Nazi death camps, Dr. Polgar continued to treat patients including finally establishing a pediatric hospital in Budapest Ghetto. He survived the war but lost his parents and other family in the Holocaust and ensuing chaos. Despite having at first been imprisoned by the "liberating" Soviet Army, in post-war Hungary he rose to a senior post at the leading Pediatric Hospital in Budapest, boldly without joining in the ruling Communist Party. In the wake of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, under political duress and a choice of conscience, Dr. Polgar made the decision to escape the "Iron Curtain" with his wife and three children ages 2 1/2, 9 and 11, in a daring night-time overland foot crossing into Austria under the noses of Russian troops attempting to restore closed borders of Hungary. Dr. Polgar emigrated to the United States in 1957 and settled in the Philadelphia area rising to the position of Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital. He also served as Professor of Pediatrics at Wayne State University and Children's Hospital of Detroit, and visiting Professor of Medicine at the University Hospital of Geneva. At the time of his death he was a Professor Emeritus at University of Pensylvania. Dr. Polgar was an aficionado classical music and was an accomplished pianist. He was also an avid world traveler and photographer, and enjoyed reading literature in his native Hungarian, English and German. He is survived by children Barbara Massey, Steven and George Polgar, three grand children and two great grand children. A memorial will be held at the Quadrangle Senior Living Community on Sunday, April 26th - 1:00 - 3:00 pm in Havertown, PA, where Dr. Polgar has lived for over 20 years.

Dr. George Polgar

April 5, 1919 - April 17, 2015