Ferenc Kemény

Ferenc Kemény was an original IOC member, named in 1894, who remained on the committee until he resigned in May 1907. In 1895 he helped establish the forerunner of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, and then served as Secretary-General of the actual NOC until 1907. His dual resignations in 1907 were based on personal attacks against him in Hungary by officials who felt he did not have adequate social status to represent the Magyars on the IOC.

Kemény studied in Budapest and Stuttgart, obtaining a teaching diploma in mathematics and physics. He moved to Paris in 1884 to study France and while there, met Pierre de Coubertin. After he left the IOC Kemény studied pedagogy and in 1934 edited The Encyclopedia of Pedagogy. His reputation in Hungary was restored somewhat later in the 20th century with a sports hall named for him in Eger, where he taught, and statues were erected in his honor there and also at the Hungarian University of Physical Education in Budapest. Kemény died during World War II, and the precise details were unclear for years, but his son later confirmed that both Ferenc Kemény and his wife committed suicide to escape “the horrors of war.”