Dr. Pál Köves passed away

Dr. Pál Köves, Professor Emeritus of the University Department of Statistics, died on January 14, 2021, in the 96th year of his life.

 In 1947 he started his studies at the Faculty of Economics of the József Nádor University, in 1948 he had to re-admit to the newly established Hungarian University of Economics. He studied statistics at the university with Ede Theiss, was also a demonstrator, a recorder of his lectures, and then, after graduating from university, he walked the teaching ladder from teaching assistantship to university appointment. He retired in 1991 and was then awarded the title of Professor Emeritus in 1995. He lived his life to the last moment in full, full of spiritual freshness, and was eventually the coronivirus made him stop. 

Most recently, at the end of 2019, he applied for writing on the history of the department, two former professors of the Department of Public Gas Statistics, first and second heads of departments. (Ede Theiss and György Péter) round anniversaries. 

An excellen expert of the general theory of statistics; His textbooks entitled “General Statistics”, co-written with Gábor Párniczky, became the defining literature of the period and understood several editions. Pál Köves’ narrower field of expertise in statistics is index calculation, of which several important publications and two books have been published for theory and practice, one of which has been translated into several languages. One of its creators considered and recommended the EQF index as an important methodological element of international comparisons. He is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), an inherited member of the Hungarian Statistical Society and a member of the Statistics Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. During his long career, he was awarded the János Csere Apáczai Prize, the Fényes Elek Memorial Medal and the Keleti Károly Memorial Medal, among others. There is no statistician in Hungary who has spent such a long time in both research and education, in whose textbooks and studies generations of economists have grown up (Köves-Párniczky: The General Statistics Book has been a defining textbook for 30 years in the education of economists in statistics and the education of the statistical profession, the third and last edition of the book was published in 1981.) Pál Köves was also a pioneer of university statistics education and a decisive figure for 40 years, he gave lectures, led exercises, wrote books, notes and examples. Many of his innovations (e.g., programmed textbooks, lecture sheets) all served the purpose of making students love his subject. At the same time, he was also an unforgettable, helpful, school-creating colleague with an excellent sense of humor that accompanied him throughout his career. Let there be only one story here from his own recollection, which can be read in the 2nd issue of the department’s Nyúz – which is the journal of the Department of Statistics, edited by him every 20 years – 3 times so far: 

“Statistics were given at a lecture in the fall of 1955. Performer III’s door to the auditorium opened at the time and was open just during the performance. There was a dog dynasty on campus, one of whose young shoots walked into the hall during a lecture, went up to the podium of the cathedral, and wolf-eyed the audience. There was a lot of laughter, I had to interrupt the performance for half. While one of the students led the puppy out of the room, I thought through the pass-through text and, as the noise subsided, I continued the lecture as follows: After that, no one can say that the dog is not interested in statistics! ”

 His spirit will continue to be with us, rest in peace!