Egon William Racz

Egon William Racz was born on July 5, 1931 in Szeged, Hungary, the second oldest of four children.  He and his siblings grew up with their mother on a hidden farm outside Szeged, while his father, a colonel in the Hungarian army, spent seven years in a Siberian prison camp for having a Jewish wife.  As a teenager Egon became notorious as the leader of the local gang of boys, whose antics included swimming underneath the ice in the Tisza River, and whose exploits inspired the writings of his friend, Hungarian writer Zoltán Polner.

Egon graduated from the University of Szeged with degrees in general and organic chemistry, and got his first job in a secret weapons manufacturing plant in Székesfehérvár, where he met his future wife Márta. During the years they were dating, all cultural, academic, and economic institutions became the property of the state, under the watchful eyes of the Communist party. When six of their contemporaries were killed by Soviet soldiers during a peaceful demonstration, Egon decided to ask Márta to marry him and they left the country together.

After involuntarily spending six months in a refugee camp in Yugoslavia (now Serbia), Egon and Márta escaped to France. They lived in Paris for 12 years and became French citizens, before again getting caught up in political unrest in 1968 and coming to the United States where they stayed for the rest of their lives, becoming U.S. citizens.

Egon got into pharmaceutical research and development soon after entering the U.S., inventing a corn-based material that is now in ubiquitous use on M&Ms, chewing gum, microwaveable fish, and most caplet medications. Egon and Márta lived in their Massachusetts home for over 40 years, spending several days a week in Belmont taking care of granddaughters, Hanna and Emma, and becoming active in the Hungarian Society of Massachusetts. Egon passed away at Maplewood Senior Living Facility in Weston, Massachusetts on February 14, 2023 after a year-long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, a year and two months after his beloved wife Márta’s passing.  He leaves his daughter Livia, son-in-law Bruce, and granddaughters Hanna and Emma of Belmont, MA; older brother Ottó and nephew Gábor of Szeged, Hungary, nephew Ottó of New York, and extended family in Hungary. He will be reunited in body and spirit with his wife in Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts, on February 25, 2023.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Egon William Racz, please visit our floral store.