Béla H. Bánáthy
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[[Image:Béla H. Bánáthy.gif|thumb|Prof. Bela H. Banathy, president of the [[IFSR]] in 1994]]
'''Béla H. Bánáthy''' (Gyula, Hungary [[December 1]], [[1919]]- Chico, California, [[4 September]] [[2003]]), was an Hungarian [[linguist]] and [[systems scientist]] and professor at the [[San José State University]] and the [[University of California]].
== Biography ==
Béla Bánáthy was born in [[1919]] in Gyula, [[Hungary]]. He was the founder of a youth leadership development program, an influential professor of systems theory, and an author.
As a young man in Hungary, Béla participated in Scouting. He attended the 1933 World Jamboree where he met the founder of Scouting, [[Baden Powell]]. In [[1933]], he attended the regional patrol leader training week and in 1934 and 1935, the national spring leadership camp at Harshegy, Budapest. In [[1934]], he was awarded the best notebook prize of the national training camp and in [[1935]], he was invited to serve on the junior staff of the camp.
In [[1940]], he became a graduate student at the [[Hungarian Royal Academy]] and was commissioned in the armored infantry. During the early [[1940]]s, after being seriously wounded in combat service against the Soviet Union, he became a junior officer of the Royal Hungarian Army and served on the faculty of the Hungarian Royal Academy. As a volunteer, he was national director for youth leadership development and on the National Council of the [[Hungarian Scout Association]]. In 1942 he married Eva. When the Red Army approached Budapest in [[1945]], his family fled to Austria to live in an Allied refugee camps. They lived in an 8'x10' shack, living on 600 calories per person per day. The family was able to move to another camp, near a Marshall plan warehouse, where Bánáthy began unloading sacks of wheat from railroad cars. He later worked in the statistical office of the warehouse<ref>Béla H. Bénéthy, Sr., Ed.D. http://www.whitestag.org/history/founders/banathy_vitae.htm Retrieved July 16, 2008</ref>. He gradually assumed more responsibility until he was minister for refugees for the [[World Council of Churches]] and head of a school for refugees. They lived in the camp for five years. In [[1951]] he and his family were able to emigrate to the US.
During the [[1950]]s Bánáthy began work at the US Government's [[Defense Language Institute | Army Language School]] in [[Monterey]], [[California]], where he chaired the Hungarian Department. In that time he furthered his interest in leadership development for youth which he had nurtured in Hungary. In 1958, he started an experimental leadership development program in the [[Monterey Bay Area Council]] of the [[Boy Scouts of America]]. As part of his master degree as [[San José State University]], he wrote a thesis titled "A Design for Leadership Development in Scouting" <ref>A Design for Leadership Development in Scouting 1963. Monterey Bay Area Council</ref>. This paper described the founding principles of the [[White_Stag_%28program%29 | White Stag program]], which was later adapted by the National Council as the defacto method for teaching junior leader training<ref>Historical Origins of the National
Boy Scouts of America Junior Leader Training http://www.whitestag.org/history/historical_background.html Retrieved July 16, 2008</ref>. Bela also taught in Sunday School and was on the Board of his church.
In the [[1960]]s and Bánáthy started teaching at [[San José State University]]. In [[1963]] he completed his master degree in [[psychology]], and in [[1966]] he received a doctorate in [[education]] from the [[University of California, Berkeley|University of California]] in Berkeley.
Further in the [[1960]]s and [[1970]]s Bánáthy was a teacher at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a director at the Far West Laboratory for Research and Development in San Francisco, where he directed over fifty research and development programs focusing on education and systems research. He designed many curriculum projects and several large scale complex systems, including the design and implementation of a Ph.D. program in educational R&D for UC Berkeley.
In the [[1980]]s he developed a systems science program of the [[Saybrook Graduate School]], and established the [[Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center]]. He later worked at the International Systems Institute (ISI), a non-profit, public benefit scientific and educational corporation in [[Carmel, California]], USA.
He coordinated over twenty international systems research conferences held in eight countries, including the 1994 Fuschl conversation. He was president of the [[International Federation of Systems Research]] in 1994. He was also honorary editor of three international systems journals: [[Systems Research and Behavioral Science]], The Journal of Applied Systems Studies, and Systems. He was on the Board of Editors of World Futures, and served as a contributing editor of Educational Technology.
Bánáthy was the founder of the [[White Stag]] Program, a youth leadership development program for the Hungarian [[Magyar Cserkészszövetség|Scouting]] organization.
== Work ==
Banathy worked as a systems and design scientist, as educator, and as author. Since the 1950s his focused on the application of systems and design theories and methodologies in social, social service, educational, and human development systems.
== Literature ==
Bánáthy authored several books and hundreds of articles. For example:
* 1968, ''Instructional Systems'', Fearon Publishers.
* 1972, ''A Design for Foreign Language Curricula'' , D.C. Heath.
* 1973, ''Developing a Systems View: The Systems Models Approach'', Lear Siegler Fearon Publishers.
* 1985, with [[Kenneth D. Bailey (sociologist)|Kenneth D. Bailey]] ''et al.'' (ed.), ''Systems Inquiring: Applications'', Volume II of the Proceedings of the Society for General Systems Research International Conference. Seaside, CA: Intersystems Publications.
* 1991, ''Systems Design of Education'', Educational Technology Publishers.
* 1992, '' A Systems View of Education''. Englewood Cliffs: Educational Technology Publications. ISBN 0-87778-245-8
* 1992, ''Comprehensive systems design in education: building a design culture'', in: ''Education. Educational Technology'', 22(3) 33-35.
* 1996, ''Designing Social Systems in a Changing World'', Springer ISBN 0-306-45251-0
* 1997, ''[http://www.newciv.org/ISSS_Primer/asem04bb.html A Taste of Systemics]'', The Primer Project, 2007.
* 2000, ''Guided Evolution of Society: A Systems View'', Springer ISBN 0-306-46382-2
=== About Banathy ===
* ''Bela H. Banathy'' in: International Federation for Systems Research, Newsletter No. 33 - July 1994,
* Gordon Dyer, [http://www.afscet.asso.fr/resSystemica/Crete02/Dyer.pdf Y3K: Beyond Systems Design as we know it], in: ''Res-Systemica'', Vol. 2, 2002.
== See also ==
* [[Béla A. Bánáthy]]
* [[Debora Hammond]]
* [[Evolutionary guidance media]]
* [[Magyar Cserkészszövetség]]
* [[Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center]]
* [[Systems philosophy]]
* [[Systemics]]
* [[Systems theory]]
* [[Systems thinking]]
== External links ==
{{portal|Scouting|Scout logo2.svg}}
* [http://www.whitestag.org/history/founders/bio_bela.html Autobiography: Bela H. Banathy], at White Stag Leadership Development, [[September 4]], [[2003]].
* [http://www.pinetreeweb.com/bhb.htm Bela's Story: Scouting in Hungary] (1925-1937)
* [http://www.ifsr.org/ IFSR]: the [[International Federation for Systems Research]]
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[[Category:Anticipatory thinking]]
[[Category:Hungarian people]]
[[Category:Systems scientists]]
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[[zh:貝拉·巴納錫]]
==References==
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