Mary Veronica Kasser Mochary (born September 2, 1942 in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

) is an American attorney and Republican Party

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

from

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. She served as mayor of Montclair, New Jersey and was the Republican nominee for

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

in 1984 to oppose incumbent Bill Bradley.

Early life and education

Mochary was born as Mary Veronica Kasser in Budapest in 1942 to Alexander and Elisabeth Kasser. Her father was the manager of the largest paper mill in Eastern Europe. The family left Hungary at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, immigrating first to Mexico and then to the United States. They settled in

Montclair, New Jersey Montclair () is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a wealthy and diverse commuter town and suburb of New York City within the New York metropolitan area. ...

when Mochary was nine years old. She attended Montclair State College High School, an experimental high school at Montclair State College (now

Montclair State University Montclair State University (MSU) is a public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, the second largest public university in New ...

). She graduated from Wellesley College in 1963 with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree in economics and from the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...

in 1967 with a J.D. degree.

Career

In 1980, Montclair's form of government changed from a five-member commission to a seven-member council. Mochary ran for the Council, and out of 28 candidates in the nonpartisan municipal election she received the most votes, leading to her selection as mayor of Montclair, New Jersey from 1980 to 1984. State Republican leaders tried to recruit Mochary to run for Congress and to oppose New Jersey Senate President Carmen A. Orechio in 1983. She then emerged as a potential candidate to oppose Bill Bradley in the 1984 U.S. Senate race. After declaring her candidacy she defeated Robert Morris of Mantoloking in the Republican primary. The Almanac of American Politics called her an "attractive candidate" to run against Bradley. However, because of the life-threatening illness of her then husband Stephen Mochary, she stopped campaigning in October and traveled with her husband to Stanford, California for his heart transplant, which in 1985, was still considered an experimental operation. Stephen Mochary lived until 2001. She was defeated by Bradley in the general election, losing by a margin of 64.2% to 35.2%. Mochary later served in the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

as principal deputy legal advisor to the secretary of state and special negotiator for real estate. She has also served as manager and trustee of the Kasser Family Foundation, overseeing a fund with assets of $2.5 million that awards scholarships to young artists."MSU's state-of-the-art theater celebrated at MSU's annual dinner"
,

, May 9, 2002. Accessed June 9, 2008.

Personal life

In 1965 she married Stephen E. Mochary, also a lawyer, and they went into practice together as Mochary & Mochary in Montclair from 1970 to 1985. They have two children, Alexandra Kasser and Matthew Mochary.

References

External links

Biographical information for Mary V. Mochary
from

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations o ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mochary, Mary V. 1942 births 20th-century American lawyers Living people Mayors of Montclair, New Jersey New Jersey lawyers New Jersey Republicans University of Chicago Law School alumni Wellesley College alumni Women mayors of places in New Jersey Hungarian emigrants to the United States 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American women politicians Candidates in the 1984 United States elections 20th-century American women lawyers