Tibor Szekely, Shekelj

* Székesfehérvár, February 14, 1912 – † Subotica, September 20, 1988 / geographical traveler, Esperantist, writer ; ; His father was a veterinarian and therefore moved frequently with his family. When he started school, he lived with his parents in Nagykikinda, Vojvodina. However, he finished high school in Nikšić, Montenegro. He graduated from the University of Zagreb with a degree in law, then worked as a journalist and traveled to Argentina as a correspondent in 1939 to write about the Yugoslav emigrants there. He probably took on this task also because of his Jewish origin, in order to be as far away from Europe as possible. He only returned to Yugoslavia in 1954, but continued to travel the world frequently. He first visited Africa in 1962. From 1972, he lived in Subotica and retired as the director of a museum. He wrote numerous books, studies and reports about his travel experiences, mostly in Esperanto, which were then translated into many other languages. In addition to his native Hungarian, he spoke more than 20 languages to varying degrees, including Serbo-Croatian, German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Esperanto at a conversational level. ; He was a member of the Esperanto Language Academy and an honorary member of the World Esperanto Association. In addition to Esperanto language books, he also wrote short stories in Esperanto, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish. He also wrote several books and articles on the significance and future possibilities of Esperanto. His ethnographic collection, acquired during his travels in South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, is in the Zenta Museum.