Steven Béla Várdy (July 3, 1935 – July 23, 2018) was McAnulty Distinguished Professor of European History at

Duquesne University Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( ; also known as Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a Private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded by members of ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Várdy was director of Duquesne University History Forum, and former chairman of its Department of History. He was an invited member of the International P.E.N.(1985), president of the Institute of German American Relations (1995), and a member of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...

(2004, 2010). He was the author, co-author, or co-editor of nearly two dozen books and over six-hundred articles, essays, and reviews. His most recent books included: *'' Historical Dictionary of Hungary'' (1997), *''Hungarians in the New World agyarok az Újvilágban''(2000), *'' Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe'' (2003), *'' Struggles in the New World �jvilági küzdelmek' (2005), *'' Stalin’s Gulag: The Hungarian Experience'' (2007), *'' Hungarians in the Slave Labor Camps of the Gulag agyarok a Gulág rabszolgatáboraiban' (2007), *'' German Contributions to Western Civilization'' (2009), *'' Hungarian Americans in the Current of History'' (2010) the last six co-authored or co-edited with

Ágnes Huszár Várdy Ágnes Huszár Várdy was a Professor of English and Communications at Robert Morris University. She was also Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature at Duquesne University. She was an invited member of the International P.E.N. (1985) and a Plen ...

. Várdy was the recipient of * Duquesne University's “Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship” (1984), Hungary's “Berzsenyi-Prize” (1992), * Árpád Academy's “Gold Medal” (1997), * “Officer’s Cross” awarded by the president of the Republic of Hungary (2001), * “Pro Libertate Award” of the Rákóczi Foundation (2005) * Gold Medal of the Hungarian Revolutionary Committee (2006) * Honorary Doctorates from King Louis the Great University (2007), and the

University of Miskolc The University of Miskolc (before 1990: ''Technical University of Heavy Industry'') is the largest university of Northern Hungary. Location Most of the buildings can be found in Egyetemváros ("University Town"), a part of the city of Miskolc. ...

(2010) in Hungary. In 2000 his former students and colleagues on two continents honored him with a

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

(Commemorative Volume) titled ''Hungary's Historical Legacies: Studies in Honor of Steven Bela Várdy'' This was repeated in 2012, when mostly other students and colleagues honored him and his wife (his scholarly collaborator) with another Festschrift. Entitled'' Hungary Through the Centuries: Studies in Honor of Professors Steven Béla Várdy and Agnes Huszár Várdy,'' this book was edited by Professor Richard P. Mulcahy of the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

, with the collaboration of Drs. János Angi and Tibor Glant of the

University of Debrecen The University of Debrecen ( ) is a university located in Debrecen, Hungary. It is the oldest continuously operating institution of higher education in Hungary ever since its establishment in 1538. The university has a well established progra ...

in Hungary. This book was introduced by one of his most distinguished former students, Air Force General Michael Hayden, former head of the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

and the CIA. Already a Plenary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences since 2004, in 2010 he was elected a regular External Member of the same Academy. Várdy was involved in two major research projects dealing with the Soviet

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

slave labor camps, and with the post-World War II political emigration from Hungary to the United States. When writing in Hungarian, he writes under the name of “Várdy Béla.”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vardy, Steven Bela 1935 births 2018 deaths Duquesne University faculty American historians 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American essayists 21st-century American essayists American people of Hungarian descent Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 20th-century American male writers People from Nógrád County