< 2021

In memoriam Tibor Simon (1926-2020)

P. CSONTOS¹, T. KALAPOS^2,§, T. PÓCS³, J. PODANI^2,#

¹Institute of Soil Science, Centre for Agricultural Research, H-1022 Budapest, Herman Ottó út 15, Hungary; cspeter@mail.iif.hu
²Department of Plant Systematics, Ecology and Theoretical Biology, Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, H-1117 Budapest, Pázmány P. sétány 1/C, Hungary;
^§tibor.kalapos@ttk.elte.hu, ^#podani@caesar.elte.hu
³Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, Institute of Biology, Eszterházy Károly University, H-3301 Eger, Pf. 43, Hungary; pocs.tamas33@gmail.com

Accepted: 20 April 2021

Key words: botany, history of science, bibliography, obituary.

At an age of 94, Professor Tibor Simon deceased on 26 November 2020. He was an outstanding scholar of Hungarian botany, a versatile researcher, a devoted teacher, a tireless advocate of fondness and protection of plants, and an unforgettable friend for many. He was born in Debrecen in 1926 and started his botanical career there at the university in the school of Professor Rezső Soó. Intensive fieldwork in the northeastern part of the country paid him national reputation with the discovery of a peat bog containing several rare glacial relict plant species, near the village Csaroda. In 1955, he followed his mentor to the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, where he remained for the rest of his life. He had the gift of unmatched productivity in several areas of botany, including floristics, plant geography, phytosociology, bryology and plant ecology. In addition to more than two hundred research papers and book chapters, his oeuvre contains the Vascular Flora of Hungary and exhaustive monographs on the vegetation of the Northern Great Plain and the Zemplén Mountains. As a university lecturer, he introduced several disciplines new for the students of the time (e.g. soil science, plant ecology) and taught others (e.g. plant systematics, phytogeography, phytosociology) with a high standard. He considered field work to be particularly important in university education. Many of his students gained unforgettable experience in field trips organized to various parts of the country and to the one-time Soviet Union. His contribution to popularizing plant science was outstanding. Not only about one-fourth of his publication list is of such writings, but generations of schoolchildren and the general public learned plants from the little Hungarian Flora he prepared with the excellent plant illustrator Vera Csapody. His role in providing expert knowledge for the emerging institutional nature conservation in Hungary was decisive. He also took up leading public duties in the university (head of the institute, deputy dean) and in various scientific bodies. His contributions to nature conservation and education were acknowledged by several awards. After his retirement in 1996, as Professor Emeritus he remained active almost until his last days. On top of all these, his unmatched influence is greatly due to his friendly personality. He treated life with a very special serenity, his manner was direct, and he helped everyone selflessly. Having a good sense of humour, storytelling and singing, he was always in the heart of a community. Generations of botanists preserve his memory and build on the knowledge he collected and transferred to so many. 

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