Abstract of Intel's Grove Backs Group That Aids the Displaced by Matt Beer, San Francisco Examiner, October 25, 1998.
Intel's Andy Grove left Hungary as a refugee in 1956 at the age of twenty. His name then was Andras Grof. Aided by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) he sailed to New York City on an aging Liberty ship and was assigned to an IRC caseworker named Irma Kadmon, now 90. The IRC fixed his teeth and paid for an expensive hearing aid (Grove suffered a 50 percent hearing loss), no questions asked.
Recalling the $600 price tag on the hearing aid, Grove remembers "I was very hesitant to tell my caseworker, but they just picked up the bill. They didn't say anything."
Recalled Kadmon: "I think we took him by surprise there."
Grove recalls being admitted to City College of New York in similar fashion:
"A man sat me down and worked with me to figure out what I needed. On the basis of just what I said, I got admitted."
In spite of a lifetime of tremendous achievement and reward, it's those first steps that Grove remembers.
"I came from a background where nobody treated anyone well, " said Grove. "Particularly if you wanted something. This agency that gave me stuff in such a warm, straighforward fashion," he said, his eyes growing moist. "I never felt inferior or at their mercy.
Conceived by Albert Einstein, the International Rescue Committee was an ad hoc group of American artists and intellectuals dedicated to rescuing their European colleagues from Hitler's fascism. Among others rescued in a mission to Eastern Europe 1943 was the painter Marc Chagall. Today the IRC continues its work, helping refugees around the world.
Created 10/25/98.
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