Gabor Katona GS remembered as creative student, imaginative scholar

Second-year graduate student and established scholar Gabor Katona GS died Monday, the Princeton Borough Police said. Katona was in the history department and concentrated in the history of science program.

University proctors found Katona, 32, at approximately 10 p.m. in his room in Lockhart Hall after receiving a call to check on the student. Proctors then contacted Public Safety who called in Borough Police and the Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad.

After working through the Hungarian embassy in Washington, police made contact with Katona's family at 6 p.m. yesterday, Borough Police Lt. John Reading said.

Reading said the cause of death was suicide.

There was no reason to suspect foul play, and Katona left no note, he said.

"It's a horrible thing," Reading said. "It always is."

Katona's death has touched many in the University community as it mourns the death of this industrious young scholar.

Katona came to the University with several publications and degrees under his belt and had already established himself as a scholar in Hungary, said Michael Mahoney, the graduate studies director.

Katona completed two masters' degrees in philosophy and art from Pecs University in Hungary and published seven books and numerous articles in Budapest.

In his second year at the University, Katona was doing research in the history of the "human" sciences, philosophy and sociology, Mahoney said.

Mahoney said he met regularly with Katona and was always stunned by his creative and provocative thinking.

"Gabor made an impression on all of us," Mahoney said. "He was a tremendously original and imaginative scholar."

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Mahoney and Katona's other professors recognized the amount of work Katona put into each project.

Mahoney recalled a particular presentation Katona gave in December about 19th-century psychoanalysis.

"We were all taken aback by the amount of reading that went into his papers. He was becoming famous for his footnotes," Mahoney said. "But it wasn't only that he read a lot. He thought very hard about what he read. He brought an imaginative perspective on every subject he touched."

"He was a very learned and very imaginative student with a very bright future ahead of him. We are just devastated by his loss," Mahoney said.

It is too soon for the University to perform a memorial service, said Lauren Robinson-Brown '85, communications director. "We usually involve the family."

Meanwhile, University officials are reminding students of the counseling and religious services available for support.

Dean of Religious Life Thomas Breidenthal emphasized that the University can help students contact spiritual leaders in the community.

"Around this particular tragedy, it's important to reach out to others and not to be isolated, seek out friends and mentors, teachers, family members," Breidenthal said.

The last campus-related suicide was in 1992 when a graduate student stepped onto the train tracks at Princeton Junction. Editor's Note: This breaking story was appended to the January 20th issue of The Daily Princetonian's online edition at 1:35 PM on January 23rd. It was later updated at 3:50 PM on January 23rd.