Dr. Istvan Stephen Tuba, Founder of ITI, died recently in San Diego of natural causes.

He was born in a rural area of Hungary, near a chemical complex where his father became technical chief. In his youth Istvan competed in sports, notably the Modern Pentathlon in which he excelled, and he also edited the sport section of the region's newspaper.

Parallel activities became routine for Istvan over the rest of his life. While studying engineering at the Technical University of Budapest he also acted as technical chief of several trade schools in Budapest.

In the early 1950's he became obsessed with the concepts of wealth creation for society as initiated by studies in poliitcal economics. In 1956 he was a research engineer with the Csepel Automobile Factory.

After the 1956 Hungarian Revoution was crushed, Istvan and his wife Erzsebet (later Elizabeth) escaped to Austria from which they were sent as political refugees to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.

By January of 1957 Istvan worked for Westinghouse Electric, East Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania. By 1960 he received the MSME degree from Carnegie Institute of Technology and in 1964 his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

By this time he was working at the world famous Westinghouse R&D Center Mechanics Department. He produced numerous publications and lectured at Carnegie Mellon University and served as adjunct professor at University of Pittsburgh.

During 1970 he started his first engineering company in Pittsburgh, whose success was followed by the establishment of other companies there and in Los Angeles.

In 1976 Dr. Tuba created the International Technology foundation, ITF, and its operating arm, International Technology Institute, ITI. Through these organizations he created the "universal" Hall of Fame for Engineering, Science and Technology. HOFEST.