Alex Kvassay.
Sandor “Alex” Kvassay, a Hungarian-born international salesman of business aircraft who circled the globe selling aircraft, died Oct. 24 in Scottsdale, Arizona, two months shy of his 98th birthday.
The son of a diplomat, Kvassay worked for military intelligence in Hungary and Turkey as a young man, eventually becoming a U.S. refugee and ultimately a citizen in 1952 through service in the U.S. Army.
Fluent in six languages, Kvassay began his career in aviation in 1953 at Beech Aircraft in Wichita, first primarily as a translator and then as a top international sales representative. Twelve years later, he joined Bill Lear at the Lear Jet Corp. as vice president of international marketing.
Over his 30-year career, Kvassay sold business aircraft for Olive Ann Beech and Bill Lear to top world leaders, celebrities and business leaders. He met a long list of luminaries, such as Albert Schweitzer, Aristotle Onassis and Neil Armstrong, who became a lifelong friend. By the time he departed Learjet in 1976, Kvassay had sold more corporate aircraft than anyone else in the industry, according to those who knew him well. He then became a partner with Duncan Aviation.
Kvassay retired in 1982 and continued to travel the world, including visits to Cuba, North Korea and the North and South poles—both the two geographic poles and the two magnetic poles. In 1999, Kvassay took part in a trip organized by Clay Lacy, flying to Midway Island in Lacy’s 40-passenger Boeing 727. At midnight on Dec. 30, the group flew across the International Date Line, becoming the first humans to greet the new millennium of 2000.
In all, Kvassay made more than 500 Transatlantic crossings and more than 100 Pacific crossings, mostly in business aircraft. He also wrote a book about his life, called Alex in Wonderland: A Life of High Adventure from War-torn Hungary to the Pentagon, detailing his secret work for military intelligence and his time in the U.S. Army. Kvassay is survived by a daughter and two sons.
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