Talk:Béla A. Bánáthy

Separation and reunion
Béla and his brother László were trapped behind the Iron Curtain for about 11 years, separated from their parents until they were 13 and 11 years old, respectively. When their father and mother became citizens of the United States pressure from U.S. Senator William F. Knowland, among others, helped to secure their release from the communist authorities in Hungary. Life magazine had a picture of them meeting their mother, a beautiful woman, at the Idlewild Airport in Queens. They took up life with their parents, and two younger brothers, in Monterey, California where their father taught at the Army Language School in the Presidio of Monterey. They were enrolled in the 8th and 7th grades, respectively, at the Walter Colton Junior High School in the fall of 1956 before they had learned much of the English language.

During their first year at Colton, the police interrogated them in the hope of finding witnesses to some neighborhood vandalism. Since no one at the school knew both English and Hungarian well, three levels of translation were required: English to Swedish to Hungarian, and then back.

Alas, this is all personal recollection, what Wikipedia disapprovingly calls original research. --AndersW (talk) 08:38, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes. Wikipedia is not the place to start once biography. I'm sorry. But you can leave any thing you like on the talk page. Good luck. -- Marcel Douwe Dekker (talk) 12:35, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

AndersW, I worked with Bela in White Stag and for him at Far West Labs. I am in contact with his sons today. I would like to add a bit of your history to Bela's bio on the White Stag site, if that's ok with you. I did not know the Senator's name. Is there other information you can share? If you'd like, you can contact me directly. -- btphelps (talk) (contribs) 17:42, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * @btphelps. I saw the article on whitestag.org mention you as sole author. You are without any doubt the main author, but I would be nice if if the article would mention "... and others". -- Marcel Douwe Dekker (talk) 19:59, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * You are so right Marcel, my apologies. I'll fix that as soon as I can. -- btphelps (talk) (contribs) 08:07, 2 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks. If you could change "Marcel Dekker" into "Marcel Douwe Dekker" you would really pleace me, or just removed that name. That is also ok. -- Marcel Douwe Dekker (talk) 19:36, 2 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Done. Credit where credit is due!! Would you mind taking a look at the Start Class ranking and make any appropriate adjustments? -- btphelps (talk) (contribs) 22:04, 2 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you. I am afraid I don't understand your last question: Which Start Class ranking?? The Béla H. Bánáthy has a B Class rating...!? You could try to take a to a next level.. I can explain, but maybe this first. -- Marcel Douwe Dekker (talk) 23:01, 2 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Sorry, I was looking at the Start Class ranking at the top of this Talk page for the son, Béla A. Bánáthy. I confused the two. And yes, I'd appreciate any suggestions you might have for improving the article about the father, Béla H. Bánáthy. -- btphelps (talk) (contribs) 23:22, 2 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Ok. I made some suggestions on the Talk:Béla H. Bánáthy page. Good luck. -- Marcel Douwe Dekker (talk) 20:23, 3 November 2008 (UTC)