BIOGRAPHY

Hello loved ones and friends, this is Connor’s twin sister, Logan. We grew up side by side with two military parents moving from continent to continent; North America, Asia, and Europe before the age of four. As Connor said, we were each other’s only “constant”. We never had the first day jitters or the cafeteria seating anguish in school because we always had each other. Connor was my cute, sensitive and shy, mathematically and scientifically inclined, constantly-innovating co-conspirator. In contrast, I was boisterous and much better in Language Arts. My parents knew they eventually had to separate us in preparation for the future. So when college time came, he moved away to North Carolina State University, while I stayed local. My parents were right because this is when the worldly and wise, funny, curious, interested, kind, knowledgeable, talkative, spontaneous, and energetic side of Connor began to erupt.

He developed a taste for discovery and tall, historic buildings, so he soon transferred to Northeastern University in Boston. This is where he met many of his lifelong friends and where he further developed his sense of self. He quickly knew every corner of Boston and especially loved walking through the historical neighborhood of Beacon Hill across the Boston Common and over to the Prudential Center. Connor could often be found playing trivia with “Geeks who Drink” in a dive bar close to his college, winning twenty-dollar gift certificates as a weekly allowance. When he wasn’t walking or playing, he was “co-oping” for Arbella and Harvard. The years flew by and he graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration in 2015.

At this point, we were both graduated and had been spending our summers walking New York City (where my mom now lived because of Connor). He would browse the Skyscraper City forum for the latest city projects which would give us a trajectory for the day. He dreamt of working for one of his favorite architecture firms one day: Snøhetta, Bjarke Ingels Group, or SHoP. We would carefully choose our shoes for the day to avoid blistering and we were off. We would be out all day and come to know all of the public bathrooms, dollar pizza shops, and spots for cheap entertainment. We would wait in line for hours to hear free concerts, get to the club early to avoid the entry fee, and ride the free fairies to get the best city views. The twins were back at it; traversing our world together. It was cathartic and we finally felt home. New York was where we placed our roots and where our adult lives really began.

Connor found a good job with the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Company where he worked for two years. He loved his commutes from our Upper East Side apartment to the 58th street location by electric skateboard through Central Park. He would listen to his latest Spotify playlist amalgamation (usually including Lauv and Post Malone) while drinking a cold brew (Triple Shot La Colombe). He loved giving tours of his office space after hours to show us and his friends the unobstructed view of Central Park. After work, he would meet with friends and somehow seamlessly juggled work and play. Thankfully, many of his friends from Boston moved to NYC as well.

Connor thrived on new experiences and living somewhere new and unfamiliar. He took after our dad who also had this relentless need to have “boots on the ground”, moving constantly. Connor would be known as “the walker”; avoiding buses, cars, subways if at all possible. On September 27th 2020, Connor walked all five boroughs in one day. He would take solo trips; once to Iceland to ride on ATVs and go dog sledding; another time to Argentina where he went deep-sea SCUBA diving. He also took a month-long backpacking trip in Eastern Europe with his Northeastern friend, James. In 2018, Connor decided to work on acquiring his EU citizenship as a proud Hungarian and wanted to make use of this by living in Europe for a while. He became really adept at creating opportunities for himself and accepted a full academic scholarship to Aalto University in Finland to study Real Estate Economics. His new obsession would become polar plunges and sauna recovery sessions.

While his time in Finland graced him more new lifelong friends and memories, he learned about an exchange (Erasmus) program in Valencia, Spain to study technical architecture. It would also offer a warmer climate, a year to learn Spanish, and a chance to attend the same school as Santiago Calatrava (one of his favorite architects). Connor was off once again! In October 2019, I spent a week in the life of my twin; going to classes, meeting his friends, walking the streets sipping horchata, snacking on pintxos, and getting our first tattoos together. His last months in Spain were difficult on him, however. The pandemic lockdown was strict in Spain, and he survived COVID alone. But he worked through it and he would call me to video chat for hours showing me his latest streetwear clothing finds. He also perfected his paella recipe and eventually finished his 90-page thesis. In May of 2020, he received his Master’s Degree and was excited to start looking for Urban Planning positions in NYC.

Through all of his travels, NYC was still his favorite and he had two tattoos to prove it. He would bask in the abundance of innovation and design concentrated on a twenty-three square mile island. Most recently, Connor’s NYC tour included the new Hudson Yards project and the Vessel, the High Line, always the historic Woolworth building, Chelsea Market, Washington Square Park, and ending with a hike through Central Park. The park was just three blocks from our apartment. We used to walk with our mom to the Time Warner Center on the south end of the park, pick up Tikka Masala at Whole Foods, and enjoy it on the rocks at Hernshead while Connor talked about every detail of the buildings around us. In 2010, a wicked blizzard whipped through NYC, leaving the city streets and parks desolate. Connor and I grabbed some cardboard and went sledding down the steps of Bethesda Terrace, played football in three feet of snow, and threw snowballs down the middle of Fifth avenue. In 2011, we found a perch alongside Central Park West to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Most summers, we would wait hours in line to enjoy free concerts in the park. We celebrated the coming of the 2013 New Year with friends and marathon runners. We would always love finding new paths and waterfalls in the Ramble. Connor was a lover of nature with a near equal affinity for tall and innovative structures. Again, with tattoos dedicated to both.

My family and I, including his girlfriend Paulina were so happy to have him home in New York, even if only for a little while. We gave up trying to hold him down and knew that we could always count on his return during the holidays. But, alas, this year it was time for my mom to move out of her Upper East Side 86th street apartment in the city of 10+ years and into her new home upstate. Although sad to say goodbye to our home base in NYC, Connor was happy to help my mom establish a new one. He helped her decorate with MoMA fixtures and eclectic West Elm pieces, to care for her new puppy, and buy a new car with all of the latest safety features. Our Christmas day was beautiful with stockings full of yummy treats, a thoughtful gift exchange, a delicious Connor-made Mexican dinner of tacos Al Pastor, and a hilarious game of Battle of the Sexes. At the end of the night, he announced that it was time to pack for his next journey – a road trip with a friend to visit Austin, Texas with a couple of exciting stops along the way. He had been talking about visiting Austin for a while and was excited for one last trip before beginning his new career. In the early morning of December 26th 2020, he left with his bags, some leftover ribs, and his drone. He was messaging and posting online throughout the day letting us know how cold it was in the Midwest and that he was thinking about us. The morning of the 27th, I received a knock on my door to let my know that my twin and favorite person in the world had been killed at 11:28pm in a head on collision with a woman driving on the wrong side of the interstate.

Connor was planning to return from his trip and live with his beautiful girlfriend, Paulina, in Brooklyn. He dreamt of becoming an Urban Planner working for Bjarke Ingels Group in NYC. He sent out tens of applications hoping to have an answer upon his return and start a new professional life. He had even started talking with Paulina about having a family with three kids. And all in an instant, his future and the future as we had all imagined it was erased.

Connor always encouraged people to enjoy life and keep traveling. To stop going to the same vacation spots and to try a new one. He told us to travel to Peru and see Machu Picchu, which we did last summer. He would entice us with the meals he would make for us from ingredients he found during his travels. He loved making Spanish paella and salmorejo, Hungarian gulyas and cucumber salad, Mexican tacos al pastor, and began experimenting with Thai curries. He wanted to share his experiences with us and to send the message that life is short and that there is no need to live by someone else’s standards. He refused to waste a minute. He would tell us to “be good and keep moving”.

xoxoxo forever,
Logi

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