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László Gencsi (1924–2022)

D. BARTHA

University of Sopron, Institute of Botany and Nature Conservation,
H-9400 Sopron, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky u. 4.; bartha.denes@uni-sopron.hu 

Accepted: 15 February 2022

Key words: fdendrology, forestry botany, obituary, Pinus sylvestris.

László Gencsi, a tenacious scholar of forestry botany passed away on 11 January 2022 at the age of 98. Coming from a large family of a rural craftsman, the financing of his education was possible by undertaking tutoring and other part-time labour at an early age, and through his excellent academic achievements. He graduated as a forest engineer from the University of Sopron in 1949. Although attracted by practical forestry work, he remained in the Institute of Botany of the university for his whole career where he devoted his life to education and research in forestry botany. Thousands of forestry students acquired botanical expertise from him. He published numerous textbooks, worked out the curriculum of several subjects, greatly contributed to the development of the herbarium and the glasshouses in the botanical garden, and took administrative tasks as a department head. Amidst the storms of history, he remained and served on his academic post persistently. His research primarily focused on the trunk and crown morphology, physiology and development of Pinus sylvestris, and the relationship between the anatomy and strength of wood. His life-long contribution to the development of forestry botany was acknowledged by several awards including the Knight's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit in 2014. With his demise, a key period in the history of forestry botany in Sopron came to an end. 

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