Edith Lovi Balas

Edith passed away peacefully in her sleep on November 16, 2024, at her home in Boca Raton, FL. 

She was the only child of Alexander Lovi and Klara Lovi, (nee Rooz), born in Cluj, Romania on June 20, 1929.

As a Hungarian Jewish child growing up during the rise of Nazism, Edith was remarkably confident and optimistic by nature. 

A top student, she insisted on completing her schooling after surviving the Holocaust. She was deported to Auschwitz in 1944, until liberation in 1945.

At age 17, Edith met her future husband of 70 years, Egon Balas. Together they raised their two daughters, Anna and Vera.

Edith wrote her autobiography, A Bird in Flight, Memoir of a Survivor and Scholar, in 2010.

Her story as a young woman was rife with challenges. First deportation, then her husband was imprisoned in solitary confinement by the Communist Romanian Government, with no communication for over two years. 

Egon and Edith did not dwell on hardships. Following years of waiting, the family emigrated to the US in 1966. They built a fulfilling life surrounded by friends in Pittsburgh, PA.

Edith was also a fivefold breast cancer survivor. She obtained her PhD in Art History at the University of Pittsburgh in 1973 and became a professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

Over the years, she authored over 10 books in Art History and her autobiography.

Edith also curated numerous art exhibits in the U.S. and Europe, primarily showcasing the works of Valentin Lustig, a Magical Realist painter from Cluj, a child of Holocaust survivors.

She especially valued his paintings that subtly portrayed the horrors of the Holocaust.

Edith's pride and joy were her family. She was a devoted daughter to her parents, a loving wife and mother, an adoring grandmother to her grandsons John, Bob, and Alex, and a doting great-grandmother to her eight great-grandchildren.