IRENE FARKAS-CONN Ph.D.

FARKAS - CONN IRENE FARKAS-CONN, Ph.D. (Age 89) A Hungarian refugee who helped thousands of fellow Hungarian Jews escape from the Holocaust in a self-rescue operation and later became a leading figure in information science in the United States, died October 11, 2016 in Arlington, VA. During World War II, she and members of her family used the Glass House, the Budapest headquarters of the family glass business, to cram more than 3,000 Jews into all available space, using chairs, desktops, stairs, closets, to shield them from the constant Nazi deportations to death camps. Meantime, the adjacent Swiss legation issued 7,500 protective passes (Schutzpasse) and as deportations accelerated, a second batch of 7,500 passes. But then the Swiss stopped issuing passes. With increasing pressure of deportations, volunteers and Jewish Glass House employees began working around the clock forging more protective passes. Many people used the passes to escape to Palestine, the future Israel, then a British mandate. While stories about the Glass House have emerged, easily accessed on the internet, many are filled with errors, she said shortly before she died. "There was a strong tradition in our family that one does the right thing, privately and quietly. For this reason, neither of my two uncles who were instrumental in the success of this self-rescue operation, nor my mother, had written anything about it. Yet this is a story that should be told: of bravery, of Jews standing up under adversity and organizing an operation in a desperate attempt to save their people." In 1947, she emigrated to New York, where she graduated Barnard College, got her Master's degree in chemistry from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and later earned her Ph.D. in library science from the University of Chicago, IL. In 1977, Dr. Farkas-Conn won the prestigious Watson Davis Award from the American Society for Information Science (ASIS) "for continuous dedicated service to the membership of ASIS." She served on numerous ASIS committees as well as on information-science-related committees of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, (AIChE) where her husband, Arthur L. Conn, was a past president. She also traveled widely on information science projects including trips to Cuba, China and Iran, as well as to Europe and South America. After Arthur Conn died in 1995, she married Ira Rosenthal, MD of Chicago. Dr. Farkas-Conn was a retired management consultant who was also a former adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Booth Business School. She was a former member of the boards of several organizations concerned with information management. She is survived by her daughter, Elizabeth Ortmayer of Arlington; son, Andrew Farkas, MD of Detroit, MI; stepdaughter, Elizabeth Magnus, Ph.D. of Beloit, WI; two stepsons, Robert Conn of Winston-Salem, NC and Alex P. Conn, Ph.D. of Boston, MA, and eight grandchildren, Abigail Ortmayer and Torin Ortmayer of VA, Jonathan Farkas of NY, Nissim Lieb Farkas and Raizel Leah Farkas of Edison, NJ, Naomi Magnus of Madison, WI, Julia Conn Espitia of Chester, NJ and Nina Conn of Boston, MA. Her funeral was held on May 13, 2016 in Arlington.Her funeral was held on May 13, 2016 in Arlington.