The Globe and Mail

Montreal -- Andre Vecsei, the Montreal architect who once found himself on the wrong side of a Gestapo firing squad, died of cancer on May 17. He was 80. In 1944, he was arrested in Nazi-occupied Hungary after attempting to secure false papers for a Jewish friend. Only seconds away from being shot, he was pardoned at the last moment because of his age. Seven years later, he was studying architecture at the University of Budapest when he was picked up by the KGB, the Soviet secret police. He was held for three days on suspicion of being a jazz-inspired subversive. After the Soviets invaded in 1956, he and his wife, Eva Hollo, fled Hungary for Canada. Settling in Montreal, he began working at Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold and Sise, an architectural firm known for its Brut style. In 1964, Mr. Vecsei became a partner with Irving Caruso and Bernard Rosen. A visiting professor at McGill University, he designed many of Montreal's municipal libraries.