Paul Soros, Hungarian engineering executive. Licensed professional engineer New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, North Carolina, British Columbia. Named Material Handling Engineer of the Year American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1981; recipient Henry Laurence Gantt medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2000, Outstanding Engineering Achievement award, National Society Professional Engineers.
Background
Soros was born Paul Schwartz on June 5, 1926, in Budapest, Hungary, to Tivadar Soros, a lawyer and author, and Erzsebet Szucs, the daughter of the owner of a fabric store. His father had been captured by the Russians during World War I and held in a detention camp in Siberia.
Education
Student, Jozsef Nador University, Budapest, Hungary, 1948. Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Polytechnic Institute New York, Brooklyn, 1950.
Career
Soros founded Soros Associates, which designs and develops bulk handling and port facilities. Soros Associates currently operates in ninety-one countries worldwide, as of 2013. Paul Soros was the older brother of George Soros, a successful businessman and financier.
Tivadar Soros forged paperwork, giving the family alias and Christian names, as the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944.
The family fled to safe houses to nearly a year, until Soviet forces invaded the country. However, the Soviets mistakenly believed that Paul Soros was a wanted Steamship officer and arrested him.
He was marched east, towards the Soviet Union with other prisoners. He managed to escape the prisoner march by ducking behind a bridge and hiding in an abandoned farm house.
He then walked back to Budapest.
Paul Soros survived the war and emigrated to the United States in 1948. He arrived in Manhattan after defecting from Hungary, then under Communist control, while traveling in Switzerland with the Hungarian Olympic ski team Soros arrived in New York City with very little money.
He enrolled at Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (present-day Polytechnic Institute of New York University), where he earned his master"s degree, as he could not afford the higher priced Ivy League universities.
He resided in a cheap apartment near Prospect Park as a student, but still struggled to pay for rent and food. Soros founded Soros Associates, which designs and develops bulk handling and port facilities.
Foreign example, the Brazilian multinational, Tubarão, used designs created by Soros" company to quadruple Brazil"s iron ore output and become the world"s largest corporate iron ore producer. Soros Associates now operated in 91 countries around the world.
Philanthropy
Paul and Daisy Soros founded the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship in 1998 with $50 million.
By 2010, they had awarded more than $30 million to nearly 400 students. They dedicated an additional $25 million to the Fellowship in 2010. Later life
Soros died at his Fifth Avenue home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on June 15, 2013, at the age of 87.
He had suffered from Parkinson"s disease, diabetes, jaw cancer and tongue cancer during his later life.
Achievements
Politics
Tivadar Soros, changed the family"s surname from Schwartz to Soros in 1936 to escape Antisemitism and the expansion of Nazism in Europe.
Membership
Trustee Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, since 1980. Delegate United States-Japan Resource committee, 1964-1966. Member American Consulting Engineers Council, National Society of Professional Engineers, Society of Mining Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers.
Clubs: New Canaan Country (Connecticut). Sankaty Golf (Nantucket, Massachusetts). Union League, Doubles (New York City).
Interests
Skiing, golf.
Connections
Son of; married Daisy Margaret Schlenger. Children: Peter, Jeffrey.
Named Material Handling Engineer of the Year American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1981. Recipient Henry Laurence Gantt medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2000, Outstanding Engineering Achievement award, National Society Professional Engineers.
Named Material Handling Engineer of the Year American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1981. Recipient Henry Laurence Gantt medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2000, Outstanding Engineering Achievement award, National Society Professional Engineers.