Agria 43. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2007)

Bodó Sándor: A hatvan éves Petercsák Tivadar köszöntése

international contacts, his personal involvement leading successfully to the organisation of ethnographic exhibitions featuring Hungary, and Heves County in particular, in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, France and the United States. It was under his leadership that the István Dobó Castle Museum won the "Museum of the Year" award in 2002, and the title "Visitor-Friendly Museum" in 2005. It was cattle husbandry in the Hegyköz that provided Tivadar Petercsák with the topic for his university doctoral thesis, which was published in 1983. He also headed the Local Handicrafts and Their Survival programme. As part of the "Our Folk Art Heritage" series Tivadar Petercsák both edited and contributed to the sixhundred page volume " Folk Art in Heves County". The topic, however, that lies closest to Tivadar Petercsák's heart is without doubt woodland, and the traditional farming communities that worked there. His first study on the topic which came out in 1979 was entitled "Joint-Tenantries, Pasturage Associations in the Hegyköz". Between 1979 and 2007 he published in the region of forty studies, including the lengthy chapter focusing on woodland use in the 1989 volume of Palócföld, and the monograph-like volume on noble and peasant joint tenantries in Heves County, which formed part of the dissertation he submitted to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences entitled: The Joint Tenantry: The Historical Forms of Woodland and Pasturage Associations in Northern Hungary. Recognition for both his professional and extra-curricular work has led to his appointment to several leading positions as well as membership of a number of prestigious organisations. He has also received numerous awards and other forms of public recognition. His love of work extends also to his teaching commitments at Károly Eszterházy College where he has taught Ethnography since 1989. He was made a permanent member of staff in 1995. Tivadar Petercsák has spent his whole career to date serving Hungary's museum service selflessly and successfully, his achievements as a manager complementing his groundbreaking academic work. We sincerely hope that he will continue to pursue his rich and varied activities for both town and country for many years to come. 10