Jurist, mayor of Temesvár (today Timişoara, Romania), chief commissioner of the police.
He was born in Vinga, from 1854 until 1862 he studied in the Piarist Gymnasium in Temesvár, which he graduated. He continued his studies in Pozsony (today Bratislava, Slovakia) and Pest where he studied law. After finishing his studies, he worked as a notary’s assistant in Vinga, from 1867 in the office of articled clerk Nándor Rieger. From there he went to the capital of Banat County where he was Mayor Károly Küttel’s assistant, and then, Mayor Ferenc Steiner’s county recorder for four years. After Steiner’s resignation, in 1876 he was elected mayor. He kept this position for ten years.
After the critical period of the 70s (many years of draught, financial problems, the emigration of the poor and middle class) he organized the affairs of the town with ferm and wise foresight, taking into account the interests of the community. Although when he was elected he did not have the support of all political parties, he managed to negotiate with everyone and unify different opinions for the sake of the town’s interests. In 1878 he got married with Leona Rieger. His wife came from a landowning family from Kudici (Temeskutas).
While he was mayor he bought the building which had once hosted the Serbian Town Hall (together with the theatre). On its plot he commissioned the building of the Royal State Secondary School for Modern Languages. In September 1879 due to his interventions, the ministry sponsored the building of the timber and metallurgy state school in Temesvár, which after three years became a first-degree industrial school and had more than a hundred students. He bought for the town the big building of the theatre, which was burnt in 1880, together with its two other buildings: the Municipal Concert Hall and the hotel. He founded a joint stock company to sponsor the building of the new theatre and also the Hungarian plays. He also founded a public kitchen, an orphanage and an old-age pension fund.
He was the president of the Society of Natural Sciences in Southern Hungary, commander-in-chief of the voluntary firefighters’ association, marksman of the civil shooting association. He connected the quickly developing suburbs with the town by building a horse tram. He tactfully negotiated with the commanders of the fortress to improve traffic. He fought for the enlargements of the town gates to direct the traffic from the suburbs into the town through the enlarged gates (the demolition of the walls was requested only later on). He supported the asphalting of the street in downtown. From the stone quarries of Susánovác he managed to get the materials for the modernization of the main roads at a very law price. The first iron bridge over the Bega Canal was built while he was the mayor of the town. He urged the canalization of the downtown area, which contributed to the improvement of public health. In 1885 the engineers made the designs and the mayor managed to get the contribution of the military treasury. But he saw the actual solution for the improvement of public health in the building of the new, modern public hospital. He sponsored the Gisella-orphanage and the population of Szeged that suffered a loss after the flooding of the Tisa River. He ordered that the health conditions in prisons should be thoroughly controlled.
His most successful achievement was the introduction of electric lighting in Temesvár. When the contract with the Austrian gas company expired, he did not prolonged it, but accepted the advantageous offer of a company from London. This way, in November 1884 Temesvár was the first town on the continent which had electric street lighting.
He was a good businessman and organizer, and thus he was noticed in Budapest. In February, 1885 he was nominated chief-commissioner of the police in Budapest in order to reorganize the Hungarian police system according to the 1881 law. He started by modernizing the system, made changes in the staff, founded new departments (the detective department, record of criminal cases, press-service). His merits were recognized and were given the title of ministerial councillor. In June, 1892 he vent home to Temesvár for a visit, but in September he had a heart-attack and died in his summer residence in Barlangliget.
The town council made the arrangements, and Török was bought home and buried in an eternal resting place. Out of respect, the town council commissioned a portrait of him which can be found in the picture-gallery of the council-room of Timisoara.
In 2009 his statue was raised in Timişoara’s Central Park.
