Biography of Anton (Tony) Z. Capri
I was born in 1938 in Czernowitz, Romania. My father, Leon, was the youngest son of Freiherr (Baron) Kapri von Merecey. The original family name "Capri" had been germanicized to "Kapri" in 1791, but after WWII my father changed it back to the original spelling. The title was originally Austrian, but all titles of nobility were abolished after Austria became a republic. My mother was the youngest daughter of landowners, Cecilia and Anton Hicke, whose ancestors, around 1775, had settled in the Bucovina under Empress Maria Theresa.
In 1939, when Hitler made a deal with Stalin that gave the Bucovina to the Soviet Union, my parents moved to Germany since my mother's family had retained its German roots. However, after WWII my parents were declared D.P.s, Displaced Persons, since they were not German and were unwilling to return to a Romania under Soviet rule.
In June 1949 our family immigrated to Canada under contract to work as farm labourers for a year. We were settled on a farm near St. Catherine, Ontario. Once the crops were in, the farmer declared that he could not pay my father during the winter months. Our family then moved to Toronto where my mother worked in a sweat shop to support us all since my father could not legally work until his contract year was up.
In Toronto I finished high school at Jarvis Collegiate and was valedictorian for the class of 1957. During high school I worked weekends and during the summer to save money for my tuition. I entered the University of Toronto in Engineering Physics, with a partial bursary and graduated in 1961. Throughout my high school career my love of writing emerged. I wrote some poetry, published in our school's yearbooks and also started two novels which I never finished.
In 1960 Skaidrite (Sky) Kveps became my wife and supported us through my final year of university.
Upon graduation in 1961with a B.A. Sc. in Engineering Physics I accepted a position with Kimberly-Clark Corporation for whom I had worked during the previous summers. In 1963 I entered Princeton University as a graduate student in physics where I specialized in Quantum Field Theory under Professor Arthur S. Wightman and obtained a Ph. D. in 1967.
By now Sky and I had three daughters and I was pleased to accept a postdoctoral position at the University of Alberta. At the time we did not realize that Alberta was to become our permanent home. I was promoted to Associate Professor in 1973 and Full Professor in 1979. In 1998 I retired as Professor Emeritus to devote my time to writing.
Our three daughters are all happily married and Sky and I have one granddaughter and three grandsons. My activities now consist of writing, hunting fishing, badminton, travel, and playing at being a grandfather. As I tell students when they grouse about being too busy, "This is the moment in your life to relax since you will never be less busy than now."