Rezso Ralph Gracza papers

Rezso Gracza received his basic education in engineering and economics in his native Hungary. Leaving Europe after WWII, he came to the United States and became a naturalized citizen in 1956. For several years Mr. Gracza was employed in the research enterprises of the flour milling industry. He is the author of dozens of publications including several patents on industrial processes, particle size technology, and physical chemistry. He is a contributing author of the book "Starch: Chemistry and Technology. Mr. Gracza also worked as manager of design and development projects in a Minneapolis engineering firm where he developed projects in industrial automotive engineering. Later, he managed the design and installation of air pollution control systems for nine years before he became an independent engineering consultant for industrial processes. With his wife, Margaret, he co-authored "The Hungarians in America", published in 1969. When in 2001 Kossuth county in Iowa celebrated its sesquicentennial with the unveiling of Louis Kossuth's statue in front of the Algona courthouse, Mr. Gracza wrote a monograph for the occasion, entitled "How and Why Iowans named Kossuth County in 1851". Since his retirement in the early 1990's, Mr. Gracza has been spending his time researching and documenting the Hungarian diaspora in Minnesota after World War II.