THOMAS G. ACZEL

 HADLEY, Thomas G. Aczel of Hadley passed away suddenly Sunday, Mar. 24, 2013 after a short illness.

Born Oct. 14, 1960 in London, he was the son of Tamas and Olga Aczel.

His father was a prizewinning Hungarian author, and his mother was an Olympic gold medalist for Hungary in the 1948 London games. After fleeing the Hungarian Soviet imposed communist regime in 1956 his parents met and married in England. The Aczel family moved to the U.S. in 1966 and settled in Amherst, where his father became a professor at the University. They became proud Americans but remained true to their Hungarian heritage. Tom graduated from Amherst Regional High School in 1978 and was a graduate of the University of Massachusetts.

Tom’s career was in technical writing, working for companies including Racal Datacom, VI Corp, Siemens USA and Republic Industries. Like his father, he was known for his razor-sharp wit, his masterful storytelling abilities, his generosity of spirit and his room filling laugh. He lived for many years in Florida and briefly in Wisconsin before returning to live in the valley in 2007.

He was predeceased by his father in 1994. He is survived by his mother, Olga Aczel of Gardner, his companion Maryellen Burnowski of Hadley and her dog Senator Chuffley and many dear friends near and far.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. Obituary and memorial register at www.douglassfuneral.com.

Service details, Social networking, Memorial Guestbook and Slideshow are available here.