Embassy Events
Embassy, Pennsylvania Admirers and Slovak Town of Tajov Commemorate Priest-Inventor Murgaš
May 22, 2009
To mark the 80th anniversary of the death of Father Jozef Murgaš – Slovak priest, inventor and patriot who emigrated to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – the Embassy participated in a commemoration event in Tajov on May 21, organized by InfoUSA Banska Bystrica and the Town of Tajov. Contributing memorial statements to the occasion were: Tajov Mayor Peter Spevak, Bishop Rudolph Balaz, Regional Governor Milan Murgaš and members of the Slovak-American historical society in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In his remarks, the Embassy’s Public Affairs Officer Ed Kemp said: “I would like to honor Father Murgaš for his place in the common history of Slovakia and the U.S. He was an immigrant, like many other Slovaks, who made a large personal contribution to both his new and his old country. He was an American, but also a Slovak patriot -- a man of vision for the new nation of Czechoslovakia.” Jozef Murgaš was a Slovak inventor, architect, botanist, painter, patriot, and Roman Catholic priest. He contributed to wireless telegraphy and help develop mobile communications and wireless transmission of information and human voice. He was born in Tajov, Slovakia, 17 February 1864 and died in Wilkes-Barre on 11 May 1929.