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Irma Keméndy (10 April 1838 – 19 March 1912) was a Hungarian teacher who operated a girls' boarding school, and later a high school in Szeged. She opened one of the first normal schools in the area and taught for over 40 years in Hungary. She was the recipient of the Golden Crowned Cross of Merit of Austria-Hungary, in recognition of her social contributions.

Early life

Irma Mária Drucker was born on 10 April 1838 at the Károly Barracks Hospital, now the building housing the Budapest City Hall, during the great flood in Pest, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire. She was the daughter of József Drucker, and sister of József Jr., a lawyer and mayor of several Hungarian cities, including Szeged, Székesfehérvár, and Sopron. After completing her primary education in Pest, Drucker attended the normal school, Sancta Maria Intézetének (Institute of Saint Mary) run by the Congregation of Jesus in Budapest, graduating in 1858.

Career

Shortly after graduating, Drucker took a post as a teacher at the private school of Izabella Malocsay in Szeged, where she worked until 1862. Her brother had become the mayor of Szeged and introduced Drucker to the widower Nándor Keméndy (née Ferdinánd Gebhardt), whose first wife had died in 1859. On 12 May 1861, the couple married and the following year their son Béla was born. On 1 September 1862, Keméndy opened a private girls' boarding school in her home to teach first to fourth grade students.

In 1863, Keméndy relocated the boarding school to Sziráky House at 2 Kelemen Street and a year later, it moved to Korona Street. The school was very popular among the upper classes of the town and attracted wide attendance, sometimes reaching over 100 pupils in a single term. By 1869, she expanded the curricula to include both fifth and sixth terms and was attracting students from Serbian and German communities in the southern part of the country. In 1875, she added a three-year normal school to train women teachers. She relocated her residence and the boarding school to 77 Tisza Lajos Boulevard and the normal school operated around the corner on Subotica Avenue. In December, Adele Zay joined Keméndy's staff as a teacher of geography, English and German languages, and mathematics and would remain there until 1884.

Ruined in the 1879 flood, in 1881, Keméndy applied for a building permit to reconstruct a building on the corner lot of Tisza Lajos Boulevard and Subotica Avenue. Various merchant shops operated on the ground floor, while the school and residence was located on the second level. She reopened the boarding and secondary school in May 1882, on Subotica in Dugonics Square, but was unable to reorganize the normal school at that time. In 1887, Keméndy founded an industrial training school for girls and gained the patronage of the local women's association to help with funding for the school. In 1900, she was able to reopen the teacher training school, but soon after retired, because of failing health and increasing blindness.

In addition to her teaching and organizing women's education facilities, Keméndy was involved in various social and benevolent societies, including the Women's Beneficial Association and the Austro-Hungarian Red Cross. When the nursery school in the city center was destroyed, Keméndy pressed for it to be rebuilt and worked to help found a kindergarten in the Rókus [hu] neighborhood of Szeged. She was very involved in extracurricular educational activities sponsored by the Catholic Church and the Youth Association. She was recognized by King Franz Joseph I with the Golden Crowned Cross of Merit for her social work and charitable contributions.

Death and legacy

Keméndy died on 19 March 1912 at her home in Szeged. Her obituary praised her for having nurtured generations of students and recognized her long involvement in benevolent work in Szeged. In 1943, János Drucker published Mór Jókai Levelei Keméndyné Drucker Irmához (Mór Jókai's Letters to Irma Keméndy-Drucker), which contained a historical overview of Keméndy's pioneering role in developing educational standards and facilities. Over 60 years after her death, her contributions to Szeged were recalled in an article by László Péter published in the regional journal, Délmagyarország.

References

Citations

1. ^ Kenyeres 2001a, p. Drucker Irma.
2. ^ Habermann 1992, p. 61.
3. Kenyeres 2001b, p. Drucker József.
4. ^ Pálmai 2008, p. 2.
5. Habermann 1992, p. 143.
6. Tóth 2000, p. Szeged8.
7. ^ Szabó 1931, p. 8.
8. ^ Sándor 1943, p. 429.
9. ^ Tóth 2000, p. Szeged18.
10. Schiel 2018, p. 562.
11. ^ Délmagyarország 1912, p. 6.
12. Péter 1973, p. 4.

Bibliography

• Habermann, Gusztáv (1992). "Drucker, Irma Mária /Drucker József". In Blazovich, László (ed.). Tanulmányok Csongrád megye történetéből [Csongrád County History Studies XIX] (in Hungarian). Szeged, Hungary: Csongrád Megyei Levéltár and the Móra Ferenc Múzeum. p. 61. ISSN 0133-414X.
• Kenyeres, Ágnes (2001a). "Magyar életrajzi lexikon: Keméndyné Drucker Irma" [Hungarian Electronic Lexicon: Irma Keméndy Drucker]. arcanum.hu (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Arcanum Adatbázis Kiadó. Archived from the original on 7 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
• Kenyeres, Ágnes (2001b). "Magyar életrajzi lexikon: Drucker József" [Hungarian Electronic Lexicon: József Drucker]. arcanum.hu (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Arcanum Adatbázis Kiadó. Archived from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
• Péter, László (11 March 1973). "Irodalmi emlékhelveink" [Our Literary Memoirs]. Délmagyarország (in Hungarian). Szeged, Hungary. p. 4. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
• Szabó, László (11 January 1931). "Régi Szegedi Családok" [Old Szeged Families]. Délmagyarország (in Hungarian). Szeged, Hungary. p. 8. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
• Pálmai, József (February 2008). "Helytörténet: Keméndy Nándorék" [Local history: Nándor Keméndy] (PDF). A Mi Lapunk (in Hungarian). 1. Szatymaz, Hungary: Mayor's Office of the Szatymaz Municipality: 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 July 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
• Sándor, István (1943). "Jókai Mór levelei Keméndyné Drucker Irmához" [Mór Jókai's letters to Irma Keméndy-Drucker] (PDF). Délvidéki szemle (in Hungarian). Szeged, Hungary: The Friends of Miklós Horthy University Association: 429–430. OCLC 224960490. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 July 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
• Schiel, Ingrid (2018). Frei – Politisch – Sozial: Der Deutsch-Sächsische Frauenbund für Siebenbürgen 1921–1939 [Free – Political – Social: The German-Saxon Women's League for Transylvania 1921–1939] (in German). Cologne, Germany: Böhlau Verlag. ISBN 978-3-412-50445-8.
• Tóth, Ferenc, ed. (2000). "Szeged". Csongrád megye építészeti emlékei [Architectural monuments of Csongrád County] (in Hungarian). Szeged, Hungary: Csongrád Megyei Önkormányzat. ISBN 978-9-637-19328-6. Archived from the original on 15 February 2017.
• "Napi Hirek: Ozvegy Keméndy Nándorné halála" [Daily News: Death of Nándor Keméndy's Widow]. Délmagyarország (in Hungarian). Szeged, Hungary. 20 March 1912. p. 6. Retrieved 10 July 2019.

• 1838 births
• 1912 deaths
• Educators from Austria-Hungary
• People from Budapest
• 19th-century Hungarian educators
• 20th-century Hungarian educators
• Hungarian schoolteachers
• 19th-century women educators
• 20th-century women educators