Frank Joseph Udvarhely Jr. 

July 16, 1947 – March 19, 2025

Frank Joseph Udvarhely Jr. passed on Wednesday, March 19, 2025.

Frank was born in Newark, N.J. to Frank J. Udvarhely Sr. and Lucille Sobka. Frank was predeceased by his parents, brother Kevin Udvarhely (2024) and son-in-law, Steven Morrison (2023). He leaves behind three adult children – Denise Morrison (VA), Karen Udvarhely (NJ) and Frank Udvarhely III (CA) and grandson Liam (VA), sister Lucille (NJ) and brother Dennis (NY); and a larger family of nieces, nephews, cousins and many close, lifelong friends.

Maureen, Frank’s wife of 51 years, preceded him in passing on September 3, 2019. Frank and Maureen were high school sweethearts – they met at East Side High School in Newark, New Jersey. They would sometimes “go down the Shore” and had fond memories of Point Pleasant, where they enjoyed the music of their generation that was proudly composed in New Jersey – from Sinatra to Valli. Together, Maureen and Frank shared a lifetime of love, humor, learning, and travel, all while raising a family of three children. The two Jersey natives relocated to California in 1996, then Florida in 2004, before returning to their home state in 2015.

As a young man, Frank was active with the Jaycees, or Junior Chamber of Commerce, where he met dear friends as they spearheaded a meals-on-wheels program in Freehold, NJ.  Friends including Tom Matthews, Jodi Gilpin, and the late Tom Gowen remained close throughout life. Frank is a military veteran, having served in the US Air Force in 1968 in Biloxi, Mississippi and also at Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York. About the move to Griffiss, Frank liked to joke that, “When I told Maureen we had to move to a new base, I said, ‘I’m taking you to Rome!’”

Frank and Maureen were proud of their children – all three are college graduates who have each lived in different states (and countries) at different times – and Frank prided himself on working hard and providing for his family. Frank was with Westinghouse then retired as an executive at AT&T where he negotiated contracts, first in Bedminster, before he was asked to be District Manager of a new call center in Sacramento, California. That move brought Frank and Maureen and their youngest child to the nearby suburb of Rocklin, in California’s “Gold Country.”

California afforded new experiences, and Frank was even in a major Hollywood film starring Donald Sutherland and Alec Baldwin. Frank was a movie extra in “Path to War,” a biopic about Lyndon Johnson, in which he was asked to “dress like a politician” on the day of filming in 2002 on location in Sacramento.

Frank’s distinctive Newark brogue, forged in the Ironbound, stuck out, and he laughed when even Jersey natives would ask him to say a few words so they could hear his accent. He liked to point out the differences across American dialects, and he still tended to prefer to pronounce his native Newark as “Nerk.”

Frank used humor to help when someone would occasionally struggle to pronounce his last name –Udvarhely– slyly explaining that they should use his initials instead, saying: “F.U.!”  Frank pronounced Udvarhely as “Ud-var-helly” – “Ud” as in “under,” “var” as in “far,” and “helly” as in “jelly.”

The Udvarhely family name is Hungarian in origin (there was an Udvarhely County in the historic Kingdom of Hungary, which is today part of Transylvania, Romania).

“Frank Joseph Udvarhely” is a generational name shared by Frank, his dad, grandad, and his son. Frank recalled spending time as an adult with his own father –a Newark cop– at their vacation home in Tall Timbers, NJ, when they still made time to bond and share humor.

In Frank’s final years, to receive physical therapy for his declining health, he lived at assisted living homes in Toms River and Belmar, New Jersey. What many residents and staff didn’t know is that, long before that and for several years, Frank volunteered to help people at care homes, as a certified Ombudsman in Sacramento, California. He had a strength of character and sought to do the right thing in principle and action.

Frank Udvarhely will be remembered and missed by many loved ones and friends. Interment with military honors 11:30am Friday, March 28, 2025, at Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Cemetery, 350 Provinceline Rd. Arneytown.