Hungarian Agricultural Research, 2004 (XIII/1-4)

2004-03-01 / 1. szám

0061316 OMgKDK Periodika Events • News <6 Events • News & Events • News & Events • News & Events Aladár Porpáczy Was Born Hundred Years Ago The Horticultural Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Fertőd Research Institute for Fruit Growing organized a mutual commemoration on this occasion in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on 14th October, 2003. Former coworkers and followers presented his highly successful career, the out­standing human qualities in seven short presentations. Aladár Porpáczy was born in Pápa in 1903. He graduated from the Institution of Horticulture (later College of Horticulture and Viti­culture). Subsequently he worked at the Agricultural Academy of Magyaróvár and the College of Horticulture and Viticulture for some 3 years. It was decisive for his career that he accepted the post of head gardener of the Esterházy estate in 1930. His talent and ambition was demonstrated by the horticultural experiments and breeding work he carried out in addition to his daily operating tasks. Soon his first papers and books were published. After World War II, under extremely difficult conditions, he created a Horticultural Research Institute and a Horticultural Second­ary School. Since both institutions were housed in the Esterházy palace, their operation prevented the further decay of this building. Meanwhile his valuable books on the growing of different fruit species were appearing almost in series, and his promising strawberry, raspberry, walnut, apple varieties were registered one after the other. The production of an interspecific hybrid between raspberry and black­berry, denominated Rubus Mohácsy­­anus Porp., proved a great success. As a recognition of his merits he was awarded the Kossuth prize and elect­ed a corresponding member by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in the year 1952. As the greatest authority on hor­ticulture, he was overburdened with work. In 1957 he was appointed director of Sopronhorpács Research Institute for Plant Breeding and Growing. Two years later he was entrusted with the chair of the Pomology Department at the College of Horticulture as well. In addition to plant breeding he turned his attention more and more to the physiology of fruit species. He recognized that without physiologi­cal and biochemical basis there is no modern horticultural research. Therefore the Department of Plant Physiology was established in Fertőd right after the revolution of 1956. The results of this effort were sum­marized in the book “The theoretical problems of modern fruit growing", which had two editions over the course of 3 years and it did not lose its actuality even after 40 years. Beside his wide activity in the field of sciences he founded the Higher Technicum of Fruit Growing in Fertőd, and doing so he created a new type of school. He was a born altruist, who respected human dignity in every­body. Critical remarks were expres­sed by him with unparalleled, posi­tive aristocratic delicacy. His exceptional character enabled him to create an oasis of democracy in his institute surround­ed by the desert of dictatorship. Here the researchers could freely ex­change their ideas and work in a quiet, purely scientific environment. We still look back to this little island, reminding on King Arthurs’ Camelot, with admiration and nos­talgia. He bore his serious illness with enormous self-discipline, hiding its gravity from colleagues as long as possible. His leaving to an other dimension happened softly, almost on tiptoe in the year 1965. But Aladár Porpáczy lives on ... József Zatykó Aladár Porpáczy Hungarian Agricultural Research 2004/1

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