Eugene Farkas

Eugene Jeno Farkas (October 28, 1881 – February 24, 1963) was an American automobile engineer of Hungarian descent.

Farkas was born in Kald, Hungary. He was the second eldest son of Karoly and Anna Farkas, and one of ten children. Karoly was a wagon builder. The family moved to Jánoshalma in 1886 and later moved on to Szarvas. Eugene attend six years of compulsory school plus four years of military school and then moved on to the Budapest Gymnasium (like High School). Through the support and kindness of a maternal uncle he was able to afford to attend the Royal Joseph Technical University, from which he graduated with a degree in Certified Mechanical Engineering.

After qualifying at university Farkas completed one year of military service after which he worked in a motorcycle factory, unpaid, in order to get experience. In 1906 Farkas and a friend left Hungary to travel to the United States. With only 17 words of English the young Hungarian landed in New York where he read the situations vacant and secured a position with Maxwell-Briscoe in Tarrytown, New York. After six months, during which Farkas had taken English lessons he decided he wanted to work in innovative motor vehicle design, to this end he wrote to Ford and Packard. Walter Flanders of Ford replied and in September 1907 Farkas started to work for Ford. This was not a long lived position because Farkas was not employed as an experimental draughtsman, after only two months Farkas moved on to work for Cadillac but due to the Panic of 1907 Farkas was soon out of work. He started work with the Morgan Engineering Co., in Alliance, Ohio where yet again the Panic of 1907 caused him to lose his job.

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