Andor Paposi-Jobb

Nomination of Dr. Andor Paposi-Jobb

Submitted by Roy Englert, Shufu President, with the concurrence of Miki Takemori, who will become Shufu President April 1, 2022

Born in late 1934, Andor Paposi-Jobb found himself at the age of 21 reluctantly but proudly participating in an armed revolution against Soviet oppression as one of the famed Hungarian Freedom Fighters. He and his fellow student-revolutionaries were, as a group, Time Magazine’s person(s) of the year for 1956 (see photo).

Andor Paposi-Jobb and his fellow student-revolutionaries on Time Magazine’s person(s) of the year for 1956
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Already a Shodan and a medalist (1954) in the Hungarian National Judo Championships, young Andor escaped the Soviet terror and arrived in his beloved adopted country, the United States, in December 1956. He first continued his education and his judo activity at Kent State University (Kent, Ohio), promptly establishing three HUN-JUDO dojos in the neighboring region.

Dr. Paposi-Jobb became a U.S. citizen in 1962 and became employed as a faculty member at Clarion University in Pennsylvania. He established the HUN-JUDO varsity program at that university in 1963. Still functioning 59 years later, HUN-JUDO dojo is one of the oldest dojos in the United
States.

Andor competed and medaled in numerous U.S. national judo championships (Senior and Master divisions). He has medaled internationally 16 times in masters competition. In addition, he was one of the founders and secretary of the World Master Athlete Judo Association, which functioned for 11 years and became the foundation for the IJF Veteran Judo Organization.

Andor receiving a Lifetime IJF Achievement Award in Miami at the IJF Veterans Championships in 2018 from Andrew Bondor, Manager of IJF Veterans Championships.
© 2022 United States Judo Federation (all rights reserved)

Dr. Paposi-Jobb became a U.S. citizen in 1962 and became employed as a faculty member at Clarion University in Pennsylvania. He established the HUN-JUDO varsity program at that university in 1963. Still functioning 59 years later, HUN-JUDO dojo is one of the oldest dojos in the United States.

Andor competed and medaled in numerous U.S. national judo championships (Senior and Master divisions). He has medaled internationally 16 times in masters competition. In addition, he was one of the founders and secretary of the World Master Athlete Judo Association, which functioned for 11 years and became the foundation for the IJF Veteran Judo Organization.

As a professor emeritus of the fine arts and an active portraitist and painter, Dr. Paposi-Jobb thought for a long time about how he might find a way to combine the two arts – painting and judo – and make a lasting contribution to the judo community. With the support of his wife Jae Brown Jobb (an author), he decided to honor “judo greats,” internationally but especially in his chosen country, by a series of portraits to be given as gifts to the chosen subjects. The unifying theme of those portraits is that each contains a “portrait within the portrait” of Dr. Jigoro Kano.

Andor Paposi-Jobb
© 2022  United States Judo Federation (all rights reserved)

The “judo greats” project took off in 2002, when the first portrait – of Dr. Eichi Koiwai and his wife Phyllis Koiwai – was unveiled as a gift at the Senior National Judo Championships in Las Vegas. Dr. and Mrs. Jobb have co-authored a book, THE JUDO GREATS, which was first published in 2012 and in its first edition described 22 of the judo greats whom Dr. Jobb had painted by that time. Later editions contained increasing numbers of portraits. The fourth edition, currently being readied for publication, will salute 36 judoka from 16 countries, but the plurality of honorees will be from the United States. The book’s foreword was written by IJF President Marius Vizer, and the introduction was written by the late Keiko Fukuda Shihan and Dr. Shelley Fernandez.

The unveiling of the Mayfield/Takemori protraits in Reno, Nevada in 2014.
In attendance M/M E L Beshimentob, Mayfield, Miki Takemori.
© 2022 Roy Nanjo (all rights reserved)

© 2022 United States Judo Federation (all rights reserved)

R Eiko Shepherd, Neil Simon, Andor Jobb, Jae Brown at the USJF Annual Meeting, Irving Texas, 2012.
© 2022 United States Judo Federation (all rights reserved)

Dr. Paposi-Jobb remains a competitor at age 87! In 2018, at the Veteran World Championships in Cancun, he was (at 83) the oldest competitor in the competition from any country. He received a special award (see photograph) from the IJF at that event, not for being the oldest competitor but for his many years of service to judo.

© 2022 United States Judo Federation (all rights reserved)

Numerous photographs, both of Dr. Paposi-Jobb and of his work, will accompany this written recommendation but in one or more separate emails. Although I have included a photo of his presentation of a portrait to the chair of the Committee, the point of the photo is not to pander to that individual but to show Dr. Paposi-Jobb’s support, specifically, of the USJF.

On a personal note, I met Andor in the mid-1970s when he was coaching the Clarion team at the Eastern Collegiate Judo Championships and I was a teenage competitor for a different university. We have maintained a friendship for almost half a century since then. Andor was and is a friendly man who has no hesitation befriending anyone, including younger and less accomplished people. He is also a humble man. I had known him at least four decades, as a gentle artist in a judogi, before I learned – and not from him – that he had been a Hungarian Freedom Fighter. Andor may not be as well known across the United States as some well-known judoka, but that is only because he prefers to shine the spotlight on others and their accomplishments, and of course he is well known internationally.

I. Roy Englert, President Shufu Yudanshakai, recommend Andor Paposi-Jobb with pride and enthusiasm.