Long Time Resident Paul Sved Passes Away

Photo Credit Beverly PickerPaul Sved (1935 - 2020), an Engineering graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and long-time resident of Scarsdale, passed away from COVID-19 on April 10, 2020. Paul was preceded in death by his wife of 47 years, Beverley (Dahmer) Sved.

Paul was born in Budapest, Hungary on May 21, 1935 to Klari and Andor Sved. As a young boy, Paul survived the war in one of Raoul Wallenberg’s Swedish safe houses in Budapest. Tragically, Paul’s father and uncle, who had helped feed fellow Jews, were murdered by the Nazis supported by the Arrow Cross, the Hungarian Fascist party. The German officer in charge spared women and children, but had the men shot and tossed into the Danube River. While in the safe house, Paul’s knack for engineering was already evident. Out of curiosity he dismantled the military phone connecting the house to Nazi headquarters, a feat that could have resulted in summary execution. Fortunately, the phone was quickly reassembled.

After the war, Paul and his mother went to Switzerland. While waiting for a U.S. visa, Paul was sent to boarding school in England. After being admitted to the U.S., Paul and his mother joined a paternal uncle and his family on Bridge Farm in Avon, NY.

Upon completing his engineering degree at RPI, Paul was a ski instructor in Denver, CO, before taking on a job with the American firm, Gates Rubber, and moving to Brussels, Belgium. Upon his return to the U.S., Paul met his future wife Beverley (also an RPI graduate) while working in the marketing/engineering department of IBM in Cambridge, MA. They were married in 1971. They lived for several years in Montclair, New Jersey, and Paris, France, before moving to Scarsdale, NY, in 1988, shortly before retiring from IBM. Paul was a great supporter of his wife's civic involvement in Scarsdale. Beverley served as Mayor of Scarsdale in the years 2003-2005 and was the recipient of the 2018 Scarsdale Bowl Award.

Paul’s understated kindness and readiness to be of help to the less fortunate accompanied him during his whole life. Paul was in exceptional physical shape until his fatal encounter with the corona virus that killed him. He was an avid skier, hiker, and cyclist.

Paul had recently relocated to Kendal on Hudson, a retirement community in Sleepy Hollow, NY, where he was a lively part of the community.

He is survived by his cousins Charles Guttmann, Marietta Pritchard, Doris Ablard, in the U.S., and George Sved in Spain. He will also be missed by many other loving relatives and friends across the world, including Jennifer, Jonathan and Katie Ablard, David, Michael, and Will Pritchard in the U.S., Richard Steiner, Margaret Guy, Mary Steiner, and Anne Streather in England and Scotland, as well as his beloved goddaughter Anne Cnops in Italy, godson Justin Lukach in the U.S., as well as Christina, Tania, and Alex de Auer of Toronto, Canada and Dubai, UE.

Arrangements for a memorial service at a later time have yet to be determined.