In honour of professor Tibor Szederkényi on the occasion of his 70th anniversary
Reference:
Acta Mineralogica-Petrographica, Szeged 2004, Vol. 45/2, pp. 1-6
Szerző:
Dr. Kóbor Balázs
Dr. Pál-Molnár Elemér
Abstract:
Tibor Szederkényi was born on 14 September, 1934 in Nagybaracska in the Bácska region of Hungary in a simple rural family of Serb origins. His grandfather was killed in WWI, his father grew up as an orphan in Szederkény, and hence he changed his name to Szederkényi later. Tibor Szederkényi went to the elementary school in Mohács, but completed his high school studies in Baja in 1953 on account of his Slav family having been stigmatized as “class-alien” by the communist regime. The once wealthy Szederkényi family was stripped of their properties, his father’s general store was seized, while he escaped expulsion only by fleeing to another county. His recollections tell us how he has never reconciled himself to having had to flee Mohács because of their origins: the multicultural milieu brought along by the Danubian boatmen and is father’s interest in sciences had created a lively atmosphere there. He admits that it was this time when he decided irrevocably to leave their socially subjugated status behind and to prove his worth as an educated man. His choice of career was influenced by his father’s interest in sciences as well as by his long-time admiration for chemistry. Stinky distillates and explosives produced in his home-built laboratory play important roles in some of the more scandalous childhood tricks recalled by him. Natural geography and, more specifically, its geological part became his favourite subject in high school. Admittance to a university was out of the question for “class-alien” students in that political situation, thus a good appearance in the “Mátyás Rákosi National Academic Competition” was the only option left for him, as advancing to the national finals meant automatic admittance to universities. And this is how Tibor Szederkényi started his university studies majoring in geology at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in 1953. […]
acta2004, elte, history, szte, teaching, tibor szederkényi
