Engineer, technician, professor.
He was born in Arad. His parents were Bakonyi Károly, a railways technician and Isztray Erzsébet; Gabriella was his sister. He completes his high-school studies in his native town, at the Hungarian Royal Upper Gymnasium. He obtains his diploma in mechanic engineering at the Polytechnical University in Budapest (1905-1909). Starting with 1910, he is an engineer in Budapest, then in Arad at the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV).
After the change of the empire, he is demanded to carry out his work at the CFR (The Romanian Railways) too. Here, for a very short period of time, he had been one of the department’s managers of the workshops in Arad. Due to his work carried out at the railway stations from Arad and the South of Arad, in 1920 he is invited to the Technical University in Timisoara in order to teach the materials’ technology. In 1930 he is appointed as a university professor. He works at the railways too, firstly at the Main workshops, as the manager of the vans’ department, then, after 1930, he becomes a technical inspector.
He had been the leader of the Educational Department of Engineering Technology from its foundation in 1948 until 1960, when he retires. As at the faculty he needs to have his lectures multiplied, he often copies and displays them manually in China ink in separate volumes (450-500 pages). His first two volumes are published in 1926 and 1927. He creates the technological laboratory of the Polytechnical University at his own expense. He is also the one, who leads the construction activities connected to the Technical University’s technological laboratory, that begun in 1953.
In the writings approaching the history of the Technical University in Timisoara, he is mentioned among the great professors. He deserves to be mentioned among the outstanding professors, given his practical experience and his skills in teaching the main technological disciplines. His student and descendant, professor dr. Aurel Nanu remembers him as the best Romanian technologist of that time. His activities are connected to the practical technology. He preserves close connections with the industrial companies and those working at the Ironworks from Resita, or at the Romanian State Railways (CFR) who are grateful to his contribution. His scientific activity is reflected in more than 100 scientific works and his participation in different conferences. He also completes his studies while travelling to the Technical Museum in München, the Technical University in Berlin, and to a wider range of European factories.
He refers to his educational viewpoints in the preface of The Metals’ Technology: „Our goal is to teach a comparative and causative technology, for the engineers and technicians, not to be satisfied with several simple statements; they should be aware of every technical and economical component of a procedure which refers to a given material.”
His main creation The Metals’ Technology is composed of three volumes of monography (1955-1956). At the library of the Technical University in Timisoara one can also find other four books, they approach topics such as the metals’ processing and technology, metallurgy, precious metals and techniques related to soldering.
He is the president of the Association of the Romanian Stamp Collectors in Timisoara, then its president of honour. He takes part in national and international stamp exhibitions. He is appointed as a distinct professor (1962). He is awarded with the Merit Order III. (1957) and the first grade (1967).
He is buried in the Upper Cemetery in Arad.
