Mária Szigethy, age 84, and longtime Island resident, died Feb. 12 at her home on Bainbridge Island. She was born March 10, 1918 in Nagyenyed, Hungary, daughter of Albert and Blanka (Barabás) Juhász, and came to the United States in November 1949 as a World War II refugee.

Mária attended “gimnázium,” the equivalent of two years of college, while in Hungary.

Her achievements overshadowed her formal education; however. Besides her native Hungarian, she spoke Romanian, French, German and English. In addition to being a shoemaker, tailor, embroiderer and master gardener, she was a self-taught yet Certified Public Accountant, and also learned four computer languages.

Her interest in mathematics, physics, chemistry and earth sciences was unbounded, resulting in middle and high school teaching of all these subjects in the Flanders and Wharton, New Jersey, schools.

She spent time as a volunteer programmer and was active in her husband’s Hungarian and English-speaking parishes, where he was a Presbyterian minister.

She is survived by her husband, Béla, Bainbridge Island; two sons, Zoltán, Bainbridge Island, and Béla, New York City, N.Y.; one sister Márta Vidovszky, Budapest, Hungary; and three grandchildren, Tiván, Seattle, Géza, Bainbridge Island, and Cara, New York City.

Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. March 8 at Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church, Bainbridge Island.

In recognition of her mentoring and support of college students in former Hungary, remembrances can be made to the Calvin Synod School Fund (Romania) c/o Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church, P.O. BOX 131, Rolling Bay, WA 98061.

Arrangements are under the direction of Kass Funeral Home, Bainbridge Island.