Susan Dischka Csaky

1926 - 2006

Susan Dischka Csaky, 79, died Saturday, April 22, 2006, at a hospital in Fort Worth.

Funeral: Private family services.

Memorials: Should friends desire, gifts may be made in her memory to the Cistercian Abbey, 3550 Cistercian Road, Irving, Texas 75039.

Mrs. Csaky was born Zsusanna Dischka on July 25, 1926, in Budapest, Hungary, the second daughter of Victor and Herta Dischka. Mr. Dischka was then the CEO of the Hungarian Textile Factory and the vice president of the International Wool Association. Zsusanna graduated from the Ursuline Academy in Budapest and attended law school. She came to the U.S. to attend the University of Georgia in 1948 on a Rotary scholarship. She was sponsered by an American Rotarian family in Thomasville, Ga. Subsequently, the Hungarian border was closed when the Russian-sponsored Communist government took power. Her mother wrote her daughter of the volatile political situation in Hungary and advised her to try to remain in the U.S. Zsusanna petitioned Congress and was granted permission to remain. The Dischka family would be separated for the next 20 years. She applied to Johns Hopkins University for graduate work and was among the first women to be admitted to the graduate school and to earn her master's in political science. On an outing with other Hungarian friends in Cold Springs Harbor, N.Y., she met her future husband, Dr. Tihamer Z. Csaky, a physician-scientist who was a professor of medicine and pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Csaky was smitten with Zsusanna and would drive through the night on weekends to court the young lady in Baltimore. The couple married in Thomasville in 1953. Their daughter, Cathy, was born in 1954 followed by a son, Karl, in 1956. While living in Chapel Hill, Mrs. Csaky earned a master of library science at UNC.

The Csaky family moved to Lexington, Ky., in 1963 when Dr. T.Z. Csaky became professor and chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Kentucky Medical School. Dr. Csaky was an acknowledged expert on intestinal transport. Mrs. Csaky raised the children and worked at the Law Library at the UK College of Law. She earned a law degree from UK while working at the law library.

In 1980, the Csakys moved to Columbia, Mo., where Susan became a professor of law and the director of the Law Library at the University of Missouri. She taught legal research and was instrumental in the transition to a new, fully computerized law library building. Her husband was professor emeritus of pharmacology at Missouri for several years after his retirement from Kentucky. Susan D. Csaky retired from the law school in 1992.

The Csakys moved to Fort Worth to be close to their children. They were great fans of the Fort Worth Symphony and Fort Worth Opera. They were parishoners at Holy Family Catholic Church. They also made many friends in the Hungarian community living in North Texas and especially enjoyed attending the monthly Hungarian Mass at the Cistercian Abbey in Irving.

Dr. T.Z. Csaky preceded his wife in death in 1998 while his daughter, Cathy Csaky Hirt, was a member of the Fort Worth City Council. Susan D. Csaky enjoyed an active life until recent years when her health began to decline. She touched all those she met with her engaging personality and her steadfast optimism. Mrs. Csaky was fluent in German, English, French and Hungarian, and charmed many when she spoke with her soft, Hungarian-accented English. She died peacefully in the presence of her children.

The survivors would like to thank the physicians who assisted Mrs. Csaky, including Dr. John Briscoe, Dr. Claudio Lehmann, Dr. Henry Cunningham, Dr. Louis Cristol, Dr. Paul Grant and Dr. Thomas Dewar.

Survivors: Daughter, Dr. Cathy Csaky Hirt, son-in-law, Darrell Hirt, M.D., and their children, Karl J. Hirt, Alex Hirt and Chistina Hirt of Fort Worth; and her son, Karl G. Csaky, M.D., Ph.D., and daughter-in-law, Eva Szalkai Csaky, and their children, Kristof Csaky and Katrina Csaky, of Kensington, Md.