Obituary of George Tenev

George Tenev, 95, of Princeton, New Jersey, died Sunday, February 22, 2015. Born in Aitos, Bulgaria, he was a resident of Princeton for many years. He attended schools in Aitos and Kotel, and Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria, the University of Vienna, and the New School for Social Research in New York. During World War II, he served as a medical corpsman in a Bulgarian Red Cross sanitary train operating across Europe; he was wounded twice and witnessed the firebombing of Dresden. During the war, in Poland, he met the late Helena Marzec. He returned to find her as hostilities were ending and in 1945, in Prague, they married and lived together for 70 years. After the war, he returned to Bulgaria with his wife. An opponent of the communist regime, he was imprisoned periodically and tortured; his family was persecuted; his father was executed in 1955. In 1957, he illegally left Bulgaria with his wife and children, a crime punishable by death. The family lived in a displaced persons camp in Vienna, Austria, and eventually came to the United States. They settled in Yonkers, New York. He worked for Radio Free Europe for many years and, after its New York offices were wound down, for financial institutions in Manhattan. He was a frequent visitor to New Suffolk, New York and Westerly, Rhode Island and, in retirement, to Menton, France and Cambridge, England. He traveled extensively throughout Europe and South America. He enjoyed reading, gardening, music, art, nature, swimming and skiing, and was a keen student of the political scene. He played an active role in raising his grandchildren. He was devoted to family and friends. Son of the late Jovi and Paraskeva Tenev, he is survived by a daughter Marie Pepper of Cambridge, England; a son Jovi Tenev and daughter-in-law Nancy Hingston of Princeton Junction, New Jersey; a granddaughter Tara Pepper Goldsmith and her husband Charles Goldsmith of Cambridge, England; a grandson Sean Pepper of New York; a grandson Liam Pepper and his wife Bic Hoang Leu of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; a grandson Nicholas Tenev of Madison, Wisconsin; grandchildren Christopher and Helena Tenev of Princeton Junction; and great grandsons Charles, Thomas, and Jonathan Goldsmith of Cambridge, England. A choral funeral Mass will be celebrated 4:30 PM, Saturday, July 25, 2015 at Miller Chapel, Princeton Theological Seminary, 64 Mercer Street, Princeton, with interment at Trinity Church, 33 Mercer Street, Princeton. In lieu of flowers, the family has suggested donations to the Red Cross, Trinity Church, Princeton, or St Dimitri of Thessaloniki (�"имитрий Солунски) Church in Aitos. Arrangements are under the direction of The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.