Rev. Louis Geza Mesko, 97, founder of Devon Preparatory School

The Rev. Louis Geza Mesko, 97, a founding father of Devon Preparatory School and a linguist who kept alive the nuances of the Hungarian language while living in exile in the United States, died Oct. 4 at the Neighborhood Hospice in West Chester.

Father Mesko grew up with four brothers in Baja, Hungary. His father was a right-wing member of parliament.

After graduating from a secondary school in Budapest operated by Piarist Fathers, he joined the religious order, whose mission is educating youth. While in the seminary, he graduated from Peter Pazmany University in Budapest and earned a master's degree in Latin and Hungarian literature. He then taught in Piarist schools in Hungary.

Father Mesko studied etymology, the origin of words. He prepared a manuscript explaining 1,300 ancient Hungarian names, but it was never published because of the advance of the Soviet army. The manuscript eventually became the basis of a popular Hungarian book,

Our Names, Our Patron Saints

, by another Piarist priest, Antal Fekete. After Fekete's death, Father Mesko prepared an expanded edition, which was published in 2007.

During World War II, two of Father Mesko's brothers died in combat while serving in the Hungarian army. His father was imprisoned when the Soviet army invaded Hungary in 1944.

Father Mesko escaped to the West as a chaplain on a hospital train. At a refugee camp in Germany, he amassed a collection of data on Hungarian refugees and Hungarian soldiers who had been prisoners of war and helped to reunify separated families. In 1947, his superiors sent him to the United States, where he and two other priests founded the first American Piarist community, in Derby, N.Y.

In 1956, he was one of the founders of Devon Preparatory School, a private school for boys in grades six through 12. He taught Latin, Spanish and history, and was the school's librarian for many years. He also ministered to Hungarian Americans and was a correspondent for the Catholic Hungarian Sunday, a weekly newspaper.

Father Mesko collected and translated into Hungarian ancient Christian writings and hymns for a yet-to-be-published volume,

Forrsviz

(Spring Water).

From the 1930s until his death, he collected Hungarian words and expressions for a thesaurus with quotations he hoped to publish. He also kept up with contemporary Hungarian literature and phrases and shared them with his compatriots.

Father Mesko never returned to his native country. After his father died in prison in 1959, his mother visited him briefly in the United States. He and his surviving brothers had a reunion in Rome in the 1970s. One brother had changed his name to avoid political persecution. The other, a physician, was permitted to practice only in a rural region of Hungary.

When Hungary's communist government fell in 1989, Father Mesko was unable to go back because of an eye condition that restricted his travel. Last spring he developed a painful infection, and the eye had to be removed. He was back saying Mass in a week. He always celebrated Mass in Latin, which he called his "second native tongue."

Father Mesko published four volumes of poetry and read poetry every day, said his great-nephew Zsolt Mesko. He believed that reading literature and poetry was a way to train the mind, and his intellect remained clear to the end, Mesko said.

On Wednesday, after a Funeral Mass for his great-uncle at Devon Preparatory School, Zsolt Mesko, a film producer in Budapest, shared his family's history with the students. He told them that Father Mesko lived his life praising the Lord through faith, love, hope and wisdom.

Father Mesko, who lived at the school, is survived by nieces and nephews.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Piarist Fathers' Seminarian and Retiree Fund, 4605 Bayview Dr., Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 33308.