The resting place of the principal of the Kupetz Lykurg High School

Lykurg Kupetz was born in Levoča on December 1, 1822. He attended the schools of his hometown and in 1830 he went to Pelsőcz in Gömör County for a year to learn the Hungarian language and returned just on the day of his father's funeral, so that he could accompany him to his grave. In the 1836-37 school year he completed his secondary education in Miskolc, from there he returned to Levoča and in 1843 he passed the candidacy examination before the esteemed superintendent Pál Jozeffy, and in the same year he became a tutor in the house of Baron Mihály Podmaniczky in Varsány, Pest County. In 1847, at Easter, he went to Halle, where he studied philosophy and theology. In October 1850, he began his work at the Levoča Lyceum, of which he became rector in 1854. In 1860 he became a substitute teacher, in 1865 a regular teacher at the Evangelical state gymnasium, in 1870 at the Hungarian royal state high school, of which he became director in 1874. ; ... Lykurg Kupetz died on January 24, 1891. For 14 years he led the school entrusted to his care with rare zeal and complete devotion, and with the help of his fine manner, good sense and great education he brought it to flourish despite the harsh local conditions and unfavorable intellectual trends. During this time, the high school underwent great and significant changes in both its internal and external organization. The six-grade school became eight-grade, the graduation examination was introduced here too, French became a compulsory subject, and with it the overwhelmingly realistic and primarily practical direction was completely changed, a higher general education based on modern languages and philosophical knowledge was the new goal towards which the transformed realist school, as a competitor to the gymnasium, had to move. Everyone who knows the inner life of schools will know what great tasks these new conditions imposed on the director of the institute, the difficulty of which lay not so much in the increasing office work as in the coordination of the increased body, in the tactful balancing of individual ambition and public spirit, of professional isolation and intellectual interaction. And Kupetz stood at the height of this task. His gentle and benevolent personality, free from all vanity and desire for domination, his noble ambition always directed towards the common good, his versatile and thorough scientific education and his broad horizons, not limited by any prejudice or bias, made him excellently qualified for this, and the teaching staff of the Levoča main secondary school always grouped themselves with sincere appreciation and kind attachment to its director, who was literally the soul of the institution. If we want to appreciate his blessed work for the institution in its entirety, we cannot ignore a very important circumstance. The secondary school was not popular anywhere in the country precisely as a result of the indicated organizational changes, because the rights were not in proportion to the new burdens and despite the course extended to 8 years and the tightened requirements, the range of qualifications did not expand. Under such circumstances, secondary schools throughout the country were depopulated. If the Levoča High School was still among the most populous and grew year by year, it can be attributed primarily to the outstanding personality of the director, who actively participated in all branches of the cultural and intellectual life of the city and the countryside and received such undivided and sincere public respect that the beneficial effect of this was also felt by the institute under his leadership. In 1887, he retired to his well-deserved rest. But this rest was not idleness for him. Even then, he remained in constant contact with the institute and followed its further development with warm interest. The rich storehouse of experiences from a long and continuous life spent in activity was always open to younger comrades and many felt the beneficial warmth of his fatherly friendship in advice and action. Therefore, his memory will live among us and be blessed forever!