Zs. P. Komáromy szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 14. 1980 (Budapest, 1980)
Szujkóné Lacza, Júlia: J. A. Krenner (1900-1979)
STUDIA BOTANICA HUNGARICA (Antea: Fragmenta Botanica) XIV. 1980 P- 5 ' 7 J. A. Krenner (1900-1979) By J. SZUJKÓ-LACZA (Received November 20, 1979) He was born on the 30th of August, 1900 in Budapest, son of the late József Sándor Krenner and Amália Halász, and died at 21st of June, 1979. He completed his studies of the primary and secondary school in Budapest. After maturation he was an university student of medicine for three years. But since he felt an invincible longing for the study of microscopic parasitic fungi and diatoms he changed for the University of Sciences of Budapest. He received his doctoral degree In general botany in 1924. He got married with Melinda (Wenck) Védfy in 1925 and married again in 1951, with the same person. Still in 1924 he was employed as an assistant at the Botanical Department cf the Hungarian National Museum. Here his task was to clssify the tropical Umbelliferae of the general herbarium following the Kew Index and to compile an inventory of the famous diatom cabinets of the late Dr. Pantocsek whose exceedingly rich diatom collection had been purchased after his death. This latter task was most welcomed by Krenner as it gave him opportunity to get acquainted among others with the wunderful and magnificent diatom "type slides" of those cabinets all the more so, since he himself had already been deeply enganged in diatom studies when still a 16-year old school boy for he had a good microscope of his own. In the Botanical Department he also had a chance of determining plant parasitic fungi. Besides he made many original microscopic drawings and paintings of Chara algae and Phycomycetes for the late director Dr. F. Filarszky and for the frequent guest of the latter, Dr. A. Scherffel. Owing to his excellent ability in microscopical drawings Krenner' s work was much valued. In 1926 there was a great demand for a young agriculturalplant-pathologist a so-called mycopathologist at the Hungarian Research Institute for Plant Pathology and Control. They wanted to acquire someone with a talent in this field as a helper in fulfilling the manyfolded obligatory tasks of the new International Plant Protection Contract signed in Rome that time. The choice fell to Dr. Krenner, who left the Museum - at that time not very willingly - and was enlisted as an assistant in the staff of the Institute for Plant Pathology. In the atmosphere of this Institute there was not much room of an offer for sen ti men tali sm at least at the beginning of Krenner' s duties. Nevertheless, in about a year he gradually felt recompensated and began to love the multilateral work that a waited him. Precise microscopical and laboratory examinations had not been the strong side of the Institute, since conditions deteriorated in these research fields during the first World War and in the following years. So Dr. Krenner reorganized laboratory works permanently pointing out the responsibility of the staff. And the directorate of the Institute rewarded his suggestions. Among the outdoor works the field inspections were those he liked best. He developed methods for field investigations and was deeply interested in the primordial causes of those plant diseases which were of no pathogenic origin. His career proceeded at a pace usual for a civil servant and he stepped forward to higher positions until 1945 when he was appointed director of the Institute. In 1956 he was invited to the University of Sciences of Budapest and was qualified as university-lecturer in "The parasitology of lower plants." The Hungarian minister of justice appointed him in 1948 to sworn official expert to the Law Court of Budapest for the subject "The fungous diseases of the timbers in buildings and their control". He was employed in the Institute of Plant Pathology for 24 years. He organized the Laboratory of Quarantine in 1952 worked there in his special field until 1961 when he retired. S
