Gabe Bokor

Gabe Bokor was born in Hungary in 1937. He attended elementary and secondary school initially in his native country, then in Romania and Bulgaria, completing his high school studies at the M. Gorky Russian-Language High School in Budapest.

In 1955, Gabe received a scholarship to study Chemical Engineering at the D.I. Mendeleyev Institute of Chemical Technology in Moscow. After the 1956 Hungarian Revolt, he returned to Hungary only to immediately leave for the West and settle with his family in Brazil.

After less than a year in his new country, Gabe passed the Brazilian high school revalidation exams and the admission exams to the prestigious Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (Polytechnical Institute of S. Paulo University). In 1962 he graduated as a Chemical Engineer.

While working during the day, Gabe earned his MBA by attending evening classes at the Escola de Administração de Empresas da Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo. He held technical and managerial positions with the multinationals Sharples do Brasil (process equipment manufacturers), Alfa-Laval (process equipment manufacturers) and Black & Decker (power tools) in Brazil. He also spent a year at Alfa-Laval Sweden as the Assistant Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1972 Gabe was offered and accepted the position of Industrial Sales Manager with Alfa-Laval Buenos Aires, Argentina. Between 1974 and 1977 he was stationed in Panama and headed Alfa-Laval's sales office for Central America and the Caribbean. After that office was closed in 1977, Gabe became Export Manager for Alfa-Laval's U.S. subsidiary in Poughkeepsie, New York.

In 1975, while still living in Panama, Gabe married Catherine Koltai, whom he had met during his stay in Sweden. In 1978 Gabe and Cathy decided to permanently settle in the United States. Making use of Gabe's technical and international business experience, as well as Cathy's linguistic background and business savvy, they established Accurapid Translation Services, Inc. in Poughkeepsie, NY and developed it into a successful and prestigious translation bureau.

Gabe is a life member of the American Translators Association, certified in four different language combinations (En-Port, En-Sp, Sp-En, and Fr-En). He served as the Administrator of ATA's Science & Technology Division, a two-term Director, the Editor of the Sci-Tech Translation Journal, Chair of ATA's Ethics Committee, as well as a member of several other ATA Committees. He is also a member of the Brazilian Translators' Associations SINTRA and ABRATES. In 2000, Gabe was awarded ATA's highest honor, the Gode Medal for distinguished service to the profession. In 2006 he was elected to the Board of Directors and, in 2009, to the Executive Committee as Treasurer of the Association.

Gabe has been involved with the on-line translator community since 1985. He served as a Sysop of the Foreign Language Forum (FLEFO) of CompuServe between 1995 and 1998 and has been the Editor/Webmaster of the Translation Journal since June 1997.

Gabe and Cathy have a son, David, born in the U.S. in 1978. For more details, see Gabe’s résumé in Adobe .pdf format.