Borisz de Balla

Borisz de Balla (August 19, 1903 – February 16, 1992), also known as Borisz Balla de Iregh, was a Hungarian journalist, historian, diplomat, novelist, and educator who taught in the United States after World War II.

Born on August 19, 1903, in Petervarad, Hungary (today in Serbia) de Balla attended the University of Pécs, where he received the B.A. (1924) and Ph.D. (1938), as well as Eötvös Loránd University, where he received an M.A. (1932).[1] His older brother, Valentine de Balla, was a political scientist at Loyola College in Maryland.[2] His parents were Aladar de Balla and Dora Paul de Balla. Aladar was a former Minister of the Interior, member of parliament, and diplomat, serving as the Hungarian ambassador in Zagreb.

De Balla was active in Hungarian Catholic circles, and served as an editor, co-editor, or contributor for several Hungarian Catholic periodicals, including Korunk Szava (Voice of Our Age, editor from 1931-1935), Új Kor (New Era), Jelenkor (Our Age), Nemzeti Újság (National News), and Vigilia (Vigil, editor-in-chief from 1935-1938).[3] He entered the Hungarian Foreign Service in the Summer of 1939, and served as cultural and press attaché in Brussels and Madrid; as Secretary of Legation in Berne; and then as Hungarian Consul in Paris. He left the diplomatic service in 1946 and remained in Paris for a year, before emigrating to the United States with his wife, the Baroness Melanie de Schwaben-Durneiss.[4]

In America, de Balla taught History at Loyola College in Maryland from 1947-1948, where he was referred to as "the leading Hungarian Catholic novelist."[5] He then taught at Le Moyne College, a Jesuit college in Syracuse, New York, from 1948-1958, before joining the graduate History faculty at St. John's University in 1958, where he specialized in teaching intellectual history and the philosophy of history.[6] Among the doctoral students he supervised or co-supervised at St. John's were Alfred G. Gerteiny, Francis E. Fenner, who taught at St. Joseph's College; the Rev. Charles B. Cushing, who was Pastor of Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Woodside, New York; John B. Starkey, who taught at Daemen College; Gerard K. Burke, who taught at the College of White Plains; Franklin J. McNiff; the Rev. Joseph J. Symes, C.M., who taught at St. John's; and Thomas Laszlo Szendrey, who taught at Gannon University, and whose 1972 doctoral dissertation was on "The Ideological and Methodological Foundations of Hungarian Historiography, 1750-1970."[7] De Balla retired in 1973 after teaching at St. John's for fifteen years, and was named Professor Emeritus.[8]

He was the author of "A lélek útjai Nyugaton" (1934); "A megsebzett" (1938); "Niczky növendék" (1939); "Brüsszeli napló: 1939-1940" (1940); "Der Verwundete" (1947); "Niké naplója" (1959); and "Traditionalist Warnings and the Limits of Progress in History" (1967). De Balla contributed essays to "Commonweal", "Catholic World", "Thought Patterns", "University Bookman", "Cross and Crown", and to a collected work by St. John's history faculty ("Studies in Modern History"). There is a photograph of de Balla on the "History of Vigilia" website.[9]

References
  1. Directory of American Scholars, 6th ed. (Bowker, 1974), Vol. I, p. 149.
  2. "Dr. De Balla Dies in Europe Crash: Auto Mishap Kills Former Baltimore Professor," Baltimore Sun, Nov. 27, 1957, 36.
  3. Éva Petrás, "A Splendid Return": The Intellectual Reception of the Catholic Social Doctrine in Hungary (1931–1944) (Wesley János Lelkészképző Főiskola, 2011); Albert Tezla, Hungarian Authors: A Bibliographical Handbook (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1970), 756.
  4. Borisz de Balla, "History and Beyond: Pages from a Diplomatic Diary, 1939-1946," In Gaetano L. Vincitorio (ed.), Studies in Modern History (St. John's University Press, 1968), 1-90.
  5. "Writer Joins Loyola Staff," Baltimore Sun, Aug. 3, 1947, 25.
  6. Directory of American Scholars, 6th ed. (Bowker, 1974), Vol. I, p. 149.
  7. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database; Steven Béla Várdy, "The Life and Untimely Death of Professor Thomas Szendrey," American Hungarian Educator, Vol. 26, no. 1-2 (Summer 2003): 1-3; Steven Béla Várdy, "Remembering Professor Thomas Szendrey (1941-2003)," Hungarian Studies Review, Vol. 30, no. 1-2 (2003): 137-140.
  8. "Faculty and Staff Retirees Honored at Testimonials," St. John's University Alumni News, Vol. 18, no. 5 (May 1973): 4.
  9. "Az alapítás (1935–1944)" A VIGILIA TÖRTÉNETE, accessed 7 May 2020.
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