In 1973, Ilona Zsidai met Roy Watson, Vice President of the American Hotel Association and, also the CEO of the Kahler Hotel chain, who was on his way to Belgrade for an international conference, at the InterContinental.
Mr. Watson was an open-minded man who loved travelling. His American company organised a hotel management training programme. He told Ilona how many students from which countries were taking part, and invited her to America.
As soon as he got home he sent the official invitation to Ilona.
At the time, this required ministerial approval, which, although supported by Ilona's boss at the Intercontinental, was refused by the ministry.
In the second half of 1974, the International Hotel Federation meeting was held in Budapest and Mr Watson visited Hungary again. By that time he had already met the hotel's general manager, Miklós Rózsa, who told Ilona after the conference, "if Mr. Watson still thinks he wants to invite you, invite you again."
Ilona recalled, "Mr. Watson sent out our invitations again, and then it took nearly a year and a half to get us the kind of ministerial approvals we needed. We were pushed back and forth with the papers, we had given up on the whole thing, but then a miracle happened and the permit came through. That's how we got into the program and that's how we were able to go to America in 1975."
Out of respect and love for Roy Watson Ilona and Peter decided to give their son the name Roy in addition to his first name Zoltan.
Roy was born in Rochester in America.
