92 year old scout leader Odon Szentkiralyi has died, 1932-2025

            Born into a military family – his father was an artillery officer, and his grandfather a rear admiral — he grew up in Hungary.  After his father was wounded near the end of the Second World War, his family took refuge on a refugee ship on the Danube River in Austria, where his youngest sister was born.  After the war his family returned to postwar Hungary under the Soviet occupation.   He was drafted into a work battalion of the army due to his family background, where he spent 13 months in prison for organizing a weekend strike.  Upon his discharge he worked as a bus driver in Budapest and married Melinda Lovass in May of 1956.

            He volunteered with his bus during the Hungarian Revolution in October 1956, first transporting patients home from hospitals to make room for the wounded freedom fighters, then going to Austria for medical supplies.  His sister Klára, a nursing student, was killed in the fighting.  After the revolution was crushed by Soviet tanks, he and Melinda decided to leave Hungary.   They arrived in the United States at Camp Kilmer, NJ in late December of 1956, then settled in Cleveland, Ohio.

            His cousins Eva, Maria, and Andrew Strada adopted Ödön and Melinda into their family, and they began learning English.  After six months he and Melinda decided it would be difficult to integrate into American society while living in Cleveland’s Buckeye Road Hungarian neighborhood, so they moved to Los Angeles, where he drove dump trucks and where their daughter Bea was born.  After three years they returned to Cleveland because they missed having four seasons.   He became a draftsman, and Zsolt, Paul, and Endre were born.  Meanwhile, in the evenings after work Ödön finished a correspondence course in mechanical engineering and earned his Professional Engineer license.

            In 1970 the family moved to Lakewood, where the children would finish their schooling. Ödön started teaching in the volunteer Hungarian School, helping the Hungarian scout troops, and served as the caretaker of Teleki Scout Park in Ashtabula County for 8 years. Near his retirement he became the principal of the Cleveland Hungarian School, which he ultimately directed for 21 years, helping second- and third-generation Hungarians learn the language of their ancestors.

           With a strong faith in God, he attended services every Sunday, loved his wife of 57 years, was proud of his children, played with his grandchildren and great grandchildren, visited his siblings, and served his community. He was an avid camper with his family, and built a small cottage near the Teleki Scout Park, where he loved to spend time and clear brush.  Being a cub scout at a young age while still in Hungary served as the foundation for his future scouting activities.  In addition to several other leadership roles, he was the executive officer for a Hungarian scout leadership training camp in Fillmore, NY for many years.  He had enormous self-discipline, was organized yet creative, occasionally writing and translating poetry, and appreciated classical music, attending the symphony frequently. He had a sense of humor, souped up his Ford Fairmont station wagon, and tinkered with all things electronic and mechanical.  In his eighties and early nineties, an unmissable ongoing weekly event was afternoon coffee with his Hungarian friends at Panera in Rocky River, where they dissected and rehashed the Second World War and analyzed current events. Throughout his life he helped and served others, was a fantastic father, and he will be dearly missed.

Interviews with Odon Szentkirály by Bocskai Radio in Hungarian:

„A cserkészet nem munka, az hivatás” – Szentkirályi Ödön mutatkozik be a közönségnek – Bocskai Rádió

Szentkirályi Ödön bácsi mesél a Magyar Iskoláról – Bocskai Rádió