PETER ZWACK

ZWACK--Peter Honorary Chairman of the Board of Zwack Unicum, Hungary's national drink, and the first post communist Hungarian Ambassador to the United States died suddenly on August 4th at the age of 85 near his second home in Bolgheri, Italy. Services were held in Bolgheri and Budapest, Hungary where he was laid to rest. Having survived the Nazis and the advent of Communism with the confiscation of his family distillery, Peter Zwack fled to the USA with the original Unicum formula where he was very active in 1956 raising funds for refugees from the Hungarian Revolution. The original Unicum was produced in Italy until Peter was invited to return to Hungary in 1988, eventually repurchasing the Zwack distillery under the new privatization laws. In 1990 he was asked to become the Ambassador to Washington. After returning from Washington, he was Chairman of Zwack Unicum and as the only independent MP in the Hungarian Parliament he spoke out against corruption while campaigning for Hungary to join NATO. He was made Honorary Citizen of Budapest among other prestigious awards and was a noted philanthropist. He is mourned by his wife Anne and his seven children: Peter, Gioia, Alexa, Iris, John, Sandor and Izabella and ten grandchildren.