Elizabeth M. Kovacs

Elizabeth "Liz" Kovacs passed away at home in early morning on January 11 after an illness. Elizabeth was born in Hungary to Steve and Elizabeth (Szarka) Kovacs, immigrating to America with her family during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. Elizabeth graduated from Central High, went on to be a dancing instructor for Arthur Murray Dance Studio competing and putting on exhibitions in and around the Chicago area. After graduation Elizabeth traveled Europe and enjoyed visiting such countries as Italy, Spain, France, and Turkey, then focusing back on her career. She was preceded in death by her parents, 2 sisters Maria and Annie and 2 brothers Steve and Louie. Surviving is a brother Zoltan Kovacs of Berrien Center, MI. Elizabeth had earned a BA in Political Science, Fine Arts with a minor in History from Indiana University South Bend. She taught English in Hungary for 4 years and in the South Bend English Institute for additional 6 years. Then she joined the International Student Office of the University of Notre Dame and for a short time also worked at the Inner Asia Resource Center of Indiana University in Bloomington. She then returned to Notre Dame and worked for 3 years at the Law Schools Center for Civil & Human Rights as coordinator of activities. In January of 2009 she moved to the Department of Electrical Engineering of Notre Dame, where she became Assistant to the Editor of the internationally leading journal on Control Systems, the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, where she continued working until her untimely death. As Editorial Assistant, she was overseeing all the day to day operations of the Journal dealing with authors from almost 80 countries of about 2,000 manuscripts per year, and coordinating 50 associate and senior editors from around the world. Lizs kindness, helpfulness, professionalism, modesty, dedication and integrity was very much appreciated, admired and talked about. People who had never met her, but interacted with her over the internet, University Professors, Graduate Students, Engineers working in High Tech industries, praised her in unsolicited letters to her supervisor. A key of her ability to deal so effectively with authors and editors was, in addition to her kindness and professionalism, her understanding of and sensitivity to cultural differences of people with different backgrounds. She truly cared about people and she will be terribly missed. Elizabeth was retiring at the end of February. We all loved Elizabeth and will miss her. God rest her soul. There will be no services or viewing. Cremation has taken place. Zahoran Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements. Memorial contributions may be made to the Center for Hospice Care. To leave an online condolence, please visit www.zahoran.com. Charitable donations may be made to:The Center for Hospice Care501 Comfort Place, Mishawaka IN 46545-5234

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