Dayton Hungarians: Their Stories, Glories and Folklore

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
ABSTRACT FOR 50TH AMERICAN HUNGARIAN EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE:

What: Individual Book Presentation for: Dayton Hungarians: Their Stories, Glories and Folklore.
Author: Mike Sakal, Award-winning journalist, columnist and communications professional, who is a second-generation American Hungarian, member of the Magyar Club of Dayton and Hungarian Reformed Church of Lorain, Ohio.

Dayton Hungarians is a two-volume set chronicling a comprehensive history of the Hungarian community in Dayton, Ohio from the late 1890s to the present.

The books contain histories of Dayton’s three former Hungarian churches, histories from families, stories about Dayton’s West Side and North Side Hungarian neighborhoods, its longtime businesses, sports, interviews with Freedom Fighters and Refugees from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and a chapter about how the current Dayton Hungarian community is maintaining its heritage and culture.

Following the conference’s theme of 250 years of Hungarians’ contributions in the United States, the Dayton Hungarian community has a significant one: Back in 1902-1903, Charles Taylor, who built the engine for Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first airplane, demonstrated the engine in a back room of Hungarian-Jewish Labor Contractor J.D. Moskowitz’s Clubhouse and Saloon in Dayton’s West Side Hungarian neighborhood.

Seeking financial support from the Dayton Hungarian community, the West Side Hungarians provided $300 that went toward the Wright Brothers’ Airplane engine that flew in their “aeroplane” in the first historic flight in Kittyhawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903.

Thus, the Dayton Hungarian community played a significant role in one of the world’s biggest inventions – Aviation.

Author Mike Sakal
Dayton, Ohio



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Mike Sakal is an Associated Press award-winning journalist and columnist in Arizona and Ohio, and an award-winning government communications professional.

A native of Dayton, Ohio where his Hungarian immigrant grandparents settled, Mike is a second-generation American Hungarian.

He currently is a longtime member of the Magyar Club of Dayton and Hungarian Reformed Church in Lorain, Ohio.

Dayton Hungarians is Sakal's first book.