Peter Andreas Szego

1925 - 2014

Peter Andreas Szego
July 18, 1925 - September 28, 2014
Resident of San Jose
Peter was born in Berlin, Germany, son of Gabor and Ann Szego. At the age of 9, Peter and his family escaped Hitler's Germany and immigrated to the U.S. in fall 1934. His family later moved from St. Louis to Los Altos in 1938 where Peter attended Los Altos Elementary School and Mountain View High School, on Castro Street in Mountain View. His studies in engineering at Stanford University were interrupted in 1944 when he entered the U.S. Army and subsequently served in Europe until 1946 as a Dental Technician.
After WWII, Peter returned to his engineering studies at Stanford and completed his Bachelor's and Engineer's degrees. He also did course work toward a Ph.D. but he did not complete his dissertation. Always a good teacher, he taught at Rice University, Houston, Texas and nearby Santa Clara University. At this time he began his life-long passion as an activist for progressive causes – civil rights, justice, peace and many political campaigns for candidates espousing those causes. Pursuing his interest in labor law, he read for the law in a friend's law office but did not take the Bar Examination. In the early 1960s when the House Un-American Activities Committee held hearings in San Francisco, Peter was subpoenaed to testify. He said he would have taken the 1st and 5th Amendments but never had the chance because Cal students put on vigorous demonstrations and the Committee packed up and went back to Washington. In 1963 Peter joined an interracial group that drove across the country to join the March on Washington.
After working in research at Ampex Corporation for more than 10 years, Peter left his engineering career to become staff to then Santa Clara County Supervisor, Dan McCorquodale. Peter followed the supervisor to Sacramento where he was chief of staff to state Senator McCorquodale. Whichever committee McCorquodale was assigned to, Peter served by his side, researching legislation, investigating problems and using his rational problem-solving approach on all questions. All the while, he continued working in applied mathematics and published numerous papers with his colleague, Lee Lorch. Long before computer programs existed for drawing political boundaries, Peter served as an advisor to U.S. Rep. Phil Burton to draft political districts that would be fair and representational of constituents.
Peter retired from the Legislature staff in 1991 and worked even harder on promotion of needs of people of all races, backgrounds and ages, locally and nationally. In 2013 he received the AARP California Percy Andrus Award for Community Service, the highest state honor from AARP. This award was given in recognition of his many years of volunteer service, among others, to the AARP California and National Legislative Councils, the advisory committee to the Silicon Valley Council on Aging, Agents for Change (a program funded by the Health Trust and Catholic Charities) and the League of Women Voters. In May of this year, Peter and his companion in many endeavors, Lee Sturtevant, together received the Santa Clara County Democratic Party Don Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award.
Lee Sturtevant passed away on August 7. Her family became Peter's, too, and he was grandfather to her grandchildren. He will be missed by his sister, Veronica Szego Tincher, of Palo Alto, California, his nephews, Steven and Russell Tincher, niece, Emily Tincher and great niece and nephew, Micaela Hellman-Tincher and Nathan Tinclair.
A memorial service will be announced later. Contributions may be made to the Peter Szego Scholarship Fund, Tower Foundation, One Washington Square, San Jose State University, San Jose, Calfornia 95192-0183. Or other organization of your choice.