H. Bathó Edit – Horváth László – Kaposvári Gyöngyi – Tárnoki Judit – Vadász István szerk.: Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 15. (2006)

HOMAGE A DR GÁBOR TOLNAY

of perhaps the most modest heroes of the Hungarian culture, the "village teachers", he taught and educated the youth of rural areas, becoming a grammar school-teacher, and later deputy head-teacher, only to accomplish his career as teacher in the chair of professorship of colleges in connection with his calling as a museologist, and a museum director, and with publishing of several hundreds of scientific papers. His theoretical knowledge was not confined to a selected few; it has not stayed within the walls of libraries and exhibition halls. There have been many who have profited from his knowledge during and after the change of the regime. As a chief advisor of the Office of Compensation of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County between 1990 and 94, he helped clarify the property problems that had been accumulated and entangled over the decades, a job that was made easier by the fact that he had paid special attention and several papers to the problem of internal land-ownership. His favourite areas of research include the agrarian history of the first half of the 20

th century and the implementation of the Nagyatádi land reform. We need to sacrifice some special time to the fact that he is the director of the Pottery Museum of Mezőtúr. The mere fact that Mezőtúr is the Mecca of Hungarian potters, in itself is not enough to verify that a separate museum has to be there to preserve what has been, and, hopefully, will be born from earth, fire and water. Since this spectacular museum, standing among the historical walls of a renovated mansion, could not have possibly been born from beauty and tradition alone. There had to be a lot of goodwill — not only Dr Gábor Tolnay

's — a lot of 'wants', mainly his, and enthusiasm capable of winning the hearts and minds of helpful people. It was his job to co-ordinate all these, so that we can feel secure about the future housing of Túr pottery. Talking about the more abstract sciences, we cannot possibly leave the fact unmentioned that for a while, as a scientific secretary of the Directorate of the Museums of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county, Dr Gábor Tolnay has been playing an important role in maintaining the scientific level of our institution. It is not that we only preserve dusting knowledge among our walls, but we have been able to communicate it with the wider public. Being well aware of the very sad fact that there are no comprehensive monographs about Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county, he initiated the publication of the series Documentatio Historica, Hungarian translations of the Latin source documents of the county. With his considerable archival research behind his back, he took part in the works as well. This way over the years, he has disclosed a lot of knowledge that would have stayed hidden from the public anyway. His main works include: — Research methodology of history of peasantry in the Horthy era (1972) — The implementation of the Nagyatádi land reform in the 1920's in Öcsöd (1975) — The 1920's land reform in Szolnok county (1987) — The plan of a specimen district of an agricultural co-operative society in Békés county in 1935 (1990) — Plough-land farming in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county between the two world wars (1990) — Local protection of agricultural interests between the two world wars (1999) — Kossuth and the questions of agriculture in the Reform Age (2002) Other than these, he is the author of more than 100 research papers, co-author of 23 books, and editor of 13 volumes. It would be unnecessary to append a full bibliography to this paper to characterise the oeuvre of Dr Gábor Tolnay. This list is widely known, especially among those working in his area of studies. The few titles above are just to briefly introduce his spirit and interests. Hopefully, this is not a closed and complete register of his main works. Apart from his own publication activities, Dr Gábor Tolnay has been carrying out intensive work in the editorial board of "Honismeret" so that the quality knowledge about the Hungarian rural life would become widely known. The same spirit characterises his activities as the director of the Pottery Museum of Mezőtúr. His scientific achievements were recognised with several scientific titles. It is often said that one of the most important achievements of this modern age, that is to say computer science is the privilege of younger generations. The director is the living refutation of this popular belief. With self-confidence and determination he started to conquer this swampy but spectacular area, and he has acquired some respectful skills and expertise. We can safely say that this vitality is the sign of some more forthcoming creative years. With this hope and with all our good wishes we are closing this salutation: May God grant the Director the necessary time and strength so that his life work can increase in volume and content! The Editorial Board 9