PRESS RELEASES | back to Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 11, 2005 -  Contact: Sandra Faux or Joseph Giomboni King’s College Public Relations Office, (570) 208-5958.

KING'S HOSTS EXHIBITION HONORING

LIFE OF REV. JOZEF MURGAS

April 11, 2005 – King’s College Ethnic Communities and Associations Outreach program and the Slovak Heritage Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania is co-sponsoring the exhibition “Rev. Jozef Mugas: Radio’s Forgotten Genius” on Sunday, April 17 from 2-8 p.m. and Monday, April 18 from 2- 5 p.m. in the Moreau Auditorium of the J. Carroll McCormick Campus Ministry Center.

The Rev. Jozef Mugas: Radio’s Forgotten Genius exhibition includes a portion of the priest’s distinguished butterfly and moth collection, his paintings, furniture, copies of registered patents, newspaper articles, portraits, pictures of his work and his home in Slovakia, and other memorabilia. The Murgas Radio Club will be on hand throughout the exhibition to demonstrate Father Murgas’ contribution to wireless communication.

Father Murgas founded the Sacred Heart Slovak Catholic Church on North Main Street in Wilkes-Barre in 1896, where he remained as pastor until his death. Murgas was a talented inventor who revolutionized wireless telegraphy through the use of a tone system for transmission of the human voice by wireless means. Murgas was also an accomplished painter, poet, botanist, and political and social-rights activist. He is recognized for his butterfly and moth collection, which at one point was said to have included 9,000 different specimens.

King’s College Ethnic Communities and Associations Outreach program explores, recognizes and celebrates the role of ethnic communities and their voluntary organizations in northeastern Pennsylvania. For more information, please contact Rev. Patrick Sullivan, C.S.C., coordinator, Ethnic Communities and Associations Outreach program, at 208-5816.

The exhibition commemorating the life of Father Murgas is free and open to the public. The J. Carroll McCormick Campus Ministry Center is located on West Jackson Street.

King’s College is a Catholic College sponsored by the Congregation of Holy Cross