Stephen Dachi was born in Hungary in 1933.  Orphaned at just three years of age, he was sent to Romania to be raised by his grandparents, and remained there for the duration of World War II. He discusses how his grandparents slept with cyanide capsules at their bedside just in case the Nazis invaded. In 1947, Dachi and his family immigrated to Canada where he studied dentistry at the University of British Columbia and later at the Oregon Dental School. He eventually joined the U.S. Foreign Service