Thomas Paulay 1923-2009

Abstract

The life of Thomas Paulay—a life that left a strong imprint on the many people who knew him personally and that affected many more around the world through his accomplishments in earthquake engineering—ended 28 June 2009 in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he had lived and spent many years on the faculty of the University of Canterbury. Over the previous year, his health had declined from cancer, but he had remained active in the earthquake engineering field, and in his correspondence with friends and colleagues, well into his eighties. Paulay was born in Sopron, Hungary, 26 May 1923. Like his father, he became an officer in the cavalry of the Hungarian army. He graduated from the Royal Hungarian Military Academy in 1943, having just turned 20, and a year later, was the second in command of a cavalry unit. When his superior officer was killed, the young Paulay found himself in charge of 283 men and 308 horses. He was critically wounded three times, returning to duty each time. After the war, he struggled to complete an engineering degree at the Technical University of Budapest under difficult conditions. He later recalled how snow fell through a hole in the bombed-out roof of the lecture hall where he sat for mathematics lectures. Having been an officer in the Hungarian army, which fought against the Soviet Union in the war, and because he was living in Catholic student housing and had a well-to-do family background, he was marked for arrest as the communists took over the political and academic institutions of Hungary. After several dangerous adventures, he made his escape to Austria and then to West Germany. Paulay and his wife Herta met at the very end of World War II as he led a group of Hungarian hospital evacuees into Austria. After Paulay escaped communist Hungary in 1948 as the Iron Curtain was being constructed, they were reunited and married in 1949 and then enjoyed 58 years of marriage before Herta passed away in 2007. Paulay is survived by his two daughters, Dorothy and Esther, his son Gregory, and six grandchildren.