Stephen Bayer

* Eperjes, May 22, 1909 – † Budapest, April 27, 1994 / secondary school teacher of mathematics and physics, textbook author, Kossuth Prize winner (1958) ; ; His father was a descendant of a farming family from Sáros County (Nádfő), who completed his studies with church support and became a teacher of mathematics and physics. Between 1904 and 1911, he taught at the Eperjes Royal Catholic High School, when his son was born. Two years later, he was asked to found the Mezőkövesd Royal Catholic High School, so the family moved there. István Bayer completed his elementary and secondary school studies here. He graduated from high school at the age of 17 in 1926 and became a student at the University of Budapest as a member of the Eötvös József dormitory, where he obtained a teaching certificate in mathematics and physics in 1931. Since there were no teaching positions available, he became a supervising teacher at the Egri Archbishop's Saint Joseph Student Home. In the meantime, he graduated from the Egri Archbishop's Law Academy and in 1936 earned a doctorate in political science from the University of Pécs. From 1932, he taught at the Kossuth Lajos Boys' Gymnasium in Pesterzsébet as a tutor, then as a substitute, and finally as a regular teacher from 1937. In January 1945, the Soviet military command ordered him to be checked, which resulted in two years of forced labor in the coal mines of the Donets Basin. He returned to Hungary in August 1947 and taught physics in various high schools until 1952. In 1952, at the suggestion of József Öveges, he was appointed as the physics teaching supervisor of Pest County and the head of the physics department of the Central Pedagogical Further Training Institute, established in July 1952. In this capacity, his duties included writing and editing teacher's manuals. He played an important role primarily in organizing modern secondary school physics education in Hungary and in the further training of physics teachers. His work was recognized with the Kossuth Prize in 1958.